Arc in infrared light (Hubble)
Date: 11 February 2008
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: NICMOS view centred on distant galaxy A1689-zD1
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 distant galaxy, dubbed A1689-zD1, appears as a greyish-white smudge in this close-up view taken with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). The galaxy is brimming with star birth. Hubble and Spitzer worked together to show that it is one of the youngest and likely the most distant galaxies ever discovered. Astronomers estimate that the galaxy is 13 thousand million light-years away.
The cluster of galaxies Abell 1689 is 2200 million light-years away and its combined mass acts as a gravitational lens, bending and magnifying the light of the galaxies located far behind it. The faraway galaxies appear as arc-shaped objects around the cluster (for example in lower right part of this image). The increased magnification allows astronomers to study remote galaxies in greater detail.
