The $ 1.4 billion Euclid Space Telescope captured an Einstein ring in one of the early test images, according to a group of scientists who recently studied the imagination.
The ring sits on the Galaxy NGC 6505, which is about 590 million light-years from Earth. It is formed by endless distortion of light through gravitational fields as that light travels throughout the universe. Euclid's high-resolution imaging that made the distant (even near the universal terms) rings well resolved, and shows the power of the telescope. The description of the ring team is Na -Published In Astronomy and astrophysics.
“All the strong lenses are special, because they are rare, and they are not believed to be the benefit of science,” said Conor O'Riordan, an Astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and Lead May -Setting The Research, in an esa Release. “This one is particularly special, because it is so close to Earth and the alignment is so beautiful.”
Einstein rings are gravitational lenses, or spacetime regions where gravitational fields bend and re -focus the light passing through them. The light is enlarged in an observer (say, a telescope space), making light sources clearer more clearly than otherwise. But gravitational lenses can also make light passing through them, often on smooshed lines or arches. An Einstein ring is a rare gravitational lens in which the light is already in a complete ring.
Astronomers saw many Einstein rings; The Webb Space Telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope revealed The first ring in a zigzag pattern in November 2024, and in April 2024 other team found compelling evidence For the dark object in an Einstein ring formed by a distant quasar.
Scientists know about the galaxy where Euclid has seen the Einstein ring since 1884, but the ring has never been seen. This is a reminder of how much cosmic discovery is in simple sight, waiting to discover that there is more state-of-the-art instruments.
Euclid's First scientific imagesReleased in November 2023, the power of the Space Telescope, which competed with Webb was shown in the deep space. But their scientific targets are different; Webb studies every stage of the universe, including the first light we can see, to understand everything from the first galaxies to the evolution of our solar system. Euclid is particularly focused on the so-called Dark Universe-the approximately 95% of cosmos scientists to this day unknown and wonders called dark objects and dark energy.
In May 2024, the Euclid team Released additional images taken with only 24 hours of Euclid observations. The images are four times more sharp than those taken with ground -based telescopes, and include the largest images taken by space from space.
And talking about Euclid's large images: In October, ESA scientists announced A massive 208-gigapixel image of nearly 14 million galaxies taken by Euclid over 260 independent observations, part of what will be the latest 3D map of the cosmos. The image of the mosaic is only 1% of the extensive Euclid survey, which will include billions -billions of galaxies, including many from the ancient universe.
To date, less than 1,000 strong lenses are known, according to the same release, but Euclid is expected to find nearly 100,000 over its mission. If this ring is any indicator, the Euclid has a promise that it will face – and space lovers are the beneficiaries.
