The ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) recently captured an Einstein Cross, with the four ‘petals’ that you see being a distant galaxy hidden behind the orange galaxy at the center. A galaxy at the center acts as a gravitational lens, bending the light emitted from the distant galaxy around it, enabling astronomers to detect the light from this hidden object.
This distant galaxy is observed as distorted and magnified. However, the special configuration of these two galaxies means that the hidden one appears as four images around the central ‘lens’ galaxy, forming a cross-like pattern called an Einstein Cross. Gravitational lensing – when a huge amount of matter distorts and magnifies the light – thus lets us discover hidden galaxies that would otherwise be invisible.
- Superior Optics: 400mm(f/5.7) focal length and 70mm aperture, fully coated optics glass lens with high transmission coatings creates stunning images...
- Magnification: Come with two replaceable eyepieces and one 3x Barlow lens.3x Barlow lens trebles the magnifying power of each eyepiece. 5x24 finder...
- Wireless Remote: This refractor telescope includes one smart phone adapter and one Wireless camera remote to explore the nature of the world easily...
The observations of this system were conducted with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at ESO’s VLT in Chile. MUSE splits the light coming from every point within the area being observed into a rainbow or spectrum, which provides astronomers with a wealth of information about the objects within the field of view,” said the ESO.
