Gravitationally Lensed Quasars
About This Image
Release Date
January 08, 2020 2:40PM (EST)Read the Release
2020-05Permissions
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Caption
Quasars' Multiple Images Shed Light on Tiny Dark Matter Clumps
Each of these Hubble Space Telescope snapshots reveals four distorted images of a background quasar and its host galaxy surrounding the central core of a foreground massive galaxy.
The gravity of the massive foreground galaxy is acting like a magnifying glass by warping the quasar’s light in an effect called gravitational lensing. Quasars are extremely distant cosmic streetlights produced by active black holes. Such quadruple images of quasars are rare because of the nearly exact alignment needed between the foreground galaxy and background quasar.
Astronomers used the gravitational lensing effect to detect the smallest clumps of dark matter ever found. The clumps are located along the telescope's line of sight to the quasars, as well as in and around the foreground lensing galaxies.
The presence of the dark matter concentrations alters the apparent brightness and position of each distorted quasar image. Astronomers compared these measurements with predictions of how the quasar images would look without the influence of the dark matter clumps. The researchers used these measurements to calculate the masses of the tiny dark matter concentrations.
Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 captured the near-infrared light from each quasar and dispersed it into its component colors for study with spectroscopy. The images were taken between 2015 and 2018.
Credits
NASA, ESA, A. Nierenberg (JPL) and T. Treu (UCLA)Keywords
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | RX J0911+0551, WGD J0405-3308, HS 0810+2554, PS J1606-2333, WFI 2033-4723, SDSS J1330+1810 |
| Object Description | Background quasars gravitationally lensed by foreground galaxies |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from programs 14594 (R. Bielby), 15177 (A. Nierenberg), 15320 (T. Treu), 13732 (A. Nierenberg) and, 12874 (D. Floyd). |
| Instrument | WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | 30 April 2013 through 15 August 2018 |
| Filters | F105W, F140W, F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/IR instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample particular wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are Cyan: F140W/F105W Orange: F160W. |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |