Abell 1689
Date: 11 February 2008
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: Abell cluster 1689
Copyright: NASA, ESA, L. Bradley (Johns Hopkins University), R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz), H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University), and G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz)
The massive cluster of galaxies Abell 1689 as seen by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The cluster's gravity acts as a gravitational lens, bending and magnifying the light of galaxies located far behind it. The faraway galaxies appear in the Hubble image as arc-shaped objects around the cluster. The increased magnification allows astronomers to study remote galaxies in greater detail.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
