Medical Market Report

Incredible Einstein Ring Seen By Euclid Mission On Well-Known Galaxy

by

The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Euclid Mission has been working over the last 18 months to understand what dark matter and dark energy really are. These are components of the universe whose existence is justified by observations and models, but we do not know what they really are. This quest is performed by Euclid, with extraordinary observations that deliver unusual stuff – like an extraordinary Einstein ring.

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

An Einstein ring is a gravitational lens phenomenon caused by the almost perfect alignment between a distant galaxy and a dense foreground object, in this case, an elliptical galaxy called NGC 6505. NGC 6505 is around 590 million light-years from us. Its enormous gravity warps space-time and so the light of a background galaxy 4.42 billion light-years away is warped into a ring.

“An Einstein ring is an example of strong gravitational lensing,” lead author Conor O’Riordan, of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, said in a statement. “All strong lenses are special, because they’re so rare, and they’re incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it’s so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful.”

Against a dark blue background, this infographic contains a paragraph of text in the top left corner, the logo of ESA in the top right corner and a succession of graphics in the bottom half of the image. The text paragraph explains the principle behind Einstein rings, and it can be read in the image caption. The graphics below it illustrate this astrophysical phenomenon, and by looking at them from left to right we can understand the process of how Einstein rings are formed. The left-most element in the bottom half of the image is a graphic representation of a galaxy, labelled ‘distant galaxy’. To the right of it, another galaxy is shown, labelled ‘Foreground galaxy acting as a magnifying lens’. The third illustration, to the right of the previous one, shows ESA’s Euclid space telescope and is labelled ‘Telescope’. The ‘distant galaxy’ and the ‘Telescope’ are connected by two lines that form an elongated diamond-shape around the ‘Foreground galaxy’. This line is labelled ‘Gravity bends the light rays of the distant galaxy’. The fourth and last illustration in the line shows a ring of light around a central disk and is labelled ‘What the telescope sees’

How an Einstein ring forms and how we see it.

Image Credit: ESA

The Einstein ring was discovered serendipitously and it came from one of the earliest science images collected by the telescope in September 2023, just weeks after its launch. Those observations were purposely out of focus (and a glitch actually created some beautiful images) but researchers were able to see what they were hiding immediately.

“I look at the data from Euclid as it comes in,” explained Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri. “Even from that first observation, I could see it, but after Euclid made more observations of the area, we could see a perfect Einstein ring. For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing.”

Strong gravitational lenses, per se, are not the way that Euclid is trying to unravel the mystery of dark matter and dark energy, but they are excellent laboratories to test those hypotheses and Einstein’s relativity to the limit. Finding more of them is important, and it is even more curious to find one in a galaxy that has been known for over 140 years.

“I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed within a well-known galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884,” said Valeria Pettorino, ESA Euclid Project Scientist. “The galaxy has been known to astronomers for a very long time. And yet this ring was never observed before. This demonstrates how powerful Euclid is, finding new things even in places we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for the future of the Euclid mission and demonstrates its fantastic capabilities.”

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

A paper describing the observations is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Related posts:

  1. Some Evergrande offshore bondholders don’t expect payment by Thursday deadline – source
  2. Watch Out For Auroras Caused By Flares From A Backwards Sunspot
  3. World’s First Transatlantic Flight Using 100% “Green Fuel” Takes To The Skies
  4. YouTubers Build Impressive And “Potentially Dangerous” Retractable Lightsaber

Source Link: Incredible Einstein Ring Seen By Euclid Mission On Well-Known Galaxy

Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.