HUBBLE ATLAS

Deep fields & lensing

Zoom into Abell 370

September 13, 2018 · NASA

Original on NASA ↗

This video begins with an image of the constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster, then zooms into galaxy cluster Abell 370. Located approximately 4 billion light-years away, the immense cluster is a rich mix of galaxy shapes. Arcs of blue light entangled among the galaxies are actually distorted images of remote galaxies behind the cluster. These far-flung galaxies are too faint for the Hubble Space Telescope to see directly, but the massive gravitational field of the foreground cluster acts as a huge lens that magnifies and stretches images of background galaxies like a funhouse mirror.