PIA15418: Quasar Lenses
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's sharp view was used to look for gravitational arcs and rings which are produced when one galaxy acts as a lens to magnify and distort the appearance of another galaxy behind it.
 Mission:  Hubble Space Telescope 
 Instrument:  WFC3 
 Product Size:  1057 x 528 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Space Telescope Science Institute 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA15418.tif (1.677 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA15418.jpg (61.94 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:


click here for larger view of figure 1 for PIA15418click here for larger view of figure 2 for PIA15418click here for larger view of figure 3 for PIA15418
click here for larger view of figure 4 for PIA15418click here for larger view of figure 5 for PIA15418
Scale VersionPoster Version
Click on individual image for larger view

The Hubble Space Telescope's sharp view was used to look for gravitational arcs and rings (indicated by arrows in inserts above), which are produced when one galaxy acts as a lens to magnify and distort the appearance of another galaxy behind it. In this case, the foreground galaxies contain actively accreting black holes called quasars.

Image Credit:
NASA, ESA, EPFL (Switzerland)

Image Addition Date:
2012-03-16