Lensing Close-up

Detailed View: Star Earendel on the Line of Extreme Magnification

This detailed view highlights the star Earendel's position along a ripple in space-time (dotted line) that magnifies it and makes it possible for the star to be detected over such a great distance—nearly 13 billion light-years. Also indicated is a cluster of stars that is mirrored on either side of the line of magnification. The distortion and magnification are created by the mass of a huge galaxy cluster located in between Hubble and Earendel. The mass of the galaxy cluster is so great that it warps the fabric of space, and looking through that space is like looking through a magnifying glass—along the edge of the glass or lens, the appearance of things on the other side are warped as well as magnified.

About the colours

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC and the WFC3/IR instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow and wide 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: Blue: F814W Green: F105W Red: F110W + F160W

About the data

This Hubble image was created from HST data from proposals: 14096 ( D. Coe ) and 15842 ( D. Coe ).