Double einstein ring

2008/01/14 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astronomia

The Hubble Telescope captures curious images from time to time. One of them is a ring of light around another. Astronomers discover that this is an optical effect formed by two galaxies. The nearest galaxy, located at 3,000 million light-years, produces a gravitational lensing effect on the light of the rear, that is, the mass of the previous galaxy diverts light from the later galaxy. As a consequence, we see a double ring from Earth. Astronomers call it Einstein's double ring. It is impossible to specify the distance to which it is farther away, but astronomers believe that between the two there may be between 6,000 and 11,000 million years.Photo: ANDÉN/ESA