Abell
62. 1703
Located in the northern celestial hemisphere, Abell 1703 is composed of over one
hundred different galaxies that act as a powerful cosmic telescope, or gravitational
lens. The gravitational lens produced by the massive galaxy cluster in the
foreground (the yellow mostly elliptical galaxies scattered across the image) bends
the light rays in a way that can stretch the images and so amplify the brightness of
the light rays from more distant galaxies. In the process it distorts their shapes and
produces multiple banana-shaped images of the original galaxies. The result is
the stunning image seen here - a view deeper into the Universe than possible with
current technology alone. Abell 1703 is located at 3 billion light-years from the Earth
(redshift 0.26).
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Johan Richard (Caltech, USA)
“The Hubble Space Telescope is the greatest astronomical
instrument yet created by humankind. Since its launch 25
years ago, it has provided discoveries well beyond what
we expected to learn.
“Some of the most dramatic discoveries have been of
distant galaxies in the early universe. Due to the bright
emission in the near-infrared from our Earth’s atmosphere,
only Hubble can obtain the deep imaging necessary to
discover galaxies hailing from less than one billion years
after the Big Bang. These observations over the past few
years have proved astounding – the early universe is
teeming with galaxies!
“This is one of Hubble’s lasting legacies – a small telescope,
with a mirror the size of your typical NBA center – can
teach us about how galaxies are growing only 500 million
years after the Big Bang. This is one dramatic bang for
your buck!”
— Dr. Steven Finkelstein
Assistant Professor of Astronomy
University of Texas at Austin