The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of an enormous group of galaxies in the constellation of Leo.
This Hubble image shows a giant group of galaxies in the constellation of Leo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.
This view of the early Universe was captured as part of the Hubble Frontier Fields campaign, which aims to investigate galaxy clusters in more detail than ever before, and to explore some of the most distant galaxies in the Universe.
According to astronomers, clusters of galaxies are extremely massive. They can have a tremendous impact on their surroundings, with their immense gravity warping and amplifying the light from more distant objects.
This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, can help researchers to see objects that would otherwise be too faint, aiding our hunt for residents of the early Universe.
MACS J1149.5+2223 is a giant cluster of galaxies located approximately 5 billion light-years away.
In 2012, it helped astronomers uncover MACS 1149-JD — one of the most distant galaxies ever discovered.
Light from this galaxy was emitted when the Universe was just 500 million years old. In other words, the starlight snagged by space telescopes left the galaxy when the Universe was just 3.6 percent of its present age.
MACS J1149+2223 situated between our Milky Way Galaxy and MACS 1149-JD magnified the latter’s light, brightening the remote object some 15 times and bringing it into view.
In March 2015, the cluster helped scientists discover a supernova in a galaxy 9.3 billion light-years away.
In 2014-2015, MACS J1149.5+2223 was observed as part of the Frontier Fields campaign.
While one of Hubble’s cameras observed the cluster itself, another simultaneously captured the spectacular scene pictured above, of an ‘unremarkable’ patch of space.
Referred to as a parallel field, this image – when compared to other similar fields – will help scientists understand how the Universe looks in different directions.
The image (hi-res version) was made from separate exposures taken in the visible region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
