News Release Archive: 1990

News Release 16 of 22

September 13, 1990 12:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-1990-20

First ESA Faint Object Camera Science Images the Gravitational Lens G2237 + 0305

The European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera on board NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with the most detailed image ever taken of the gravitational lens G2237 + 0305--sometimes referred to as the "Einstein Cross". The photograph shows four images of a very distant quasar which has been multiple-imaged by a relatively nearby galaxy acting as a gravitational lens. The angular separation between the upper and lower images is 1.6 arc seconds.


Credit: NASA and ESA