Annotated image of the field around CLASS B1608+656
Date: 17 April 2014
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: CLASS B1608+656
Copyright: NASA, ESA
Most of the galaxies visible in this Hubble image are members of a huge cluster called CLASS B1608+656, which lies about five billion light-years away. But the field also contains other objects that are both significantly closer and far more distant – including two gravitational lenses dubbed Fred and Ginger.
These contain enough mass to visibly distort the light from objects behind them. Fred, also known more prosaically as [FMK2006] ACS J160919+6532, lies near the lens galaxies in CLASS B1608+656, while Ginger ([FMK2006] ACS J160910+6532) is markedly closer to us. Despite their different distances from us, both can be seen near to CLASS B1608+656 in the central region of this Hubble image, and are labelled.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
