The European Space Agency (ESA) said on Monday that his Euclid Space Telescope a rare clear halo of light around one nearby Melkweg.
Known as an Einstein ring, the Halo was taken on photos that surround a galaxy, almost 590 million light years away, which is considered in the vicinity of Cosmic Standards. A single light year is measured at 5.8 trillion miles.
Although astronomers knew about the galaxy where the phenomenon was caught for more than a century, they were surprised when Euclid revealed the clear glowing ring,
Euclid shot Van Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 1, 2023, to start a six -year mission to explore the dark universe.
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A sea of ​​colorful stars and galaxies seem to swim in the enormous blackness of the space around a blurry halo in the middle. In the middle of the image, the Fuzzy -looking light lamp extends in a warm yellow tone around a small bright spot, nestled in a thin light circle that seems to be close around it. (ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li)
But before the space telescope could start his research into the universe, scientists had to ensure that everything on board worked well. During the early testing phase, which took place in September 2023, Euclid sent images back to Earth.
The ESA said the images were deliberately out of focus, but in one of the images, Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri saw what he believed was a very special phenomenon and decided to look a little closer.
“I look at Euclid’s data when it comes in,” Bruno said in a press release from the ESA. “Even because of that first observation I was able to see it, but after Euclid had made more observations of the area, we were able to see a perfect Einstein ring. For me, with a lifelong interest in gravity lens, that was amazing.”
For the most part of the population there, an Einstein ring is an “extremely rare phenomenon,” said the ESA.
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A thin ring of a perfect circular shape and a penetrating clear white disc in the middle are the protagonists of this image. They stand out against a uniform colored background of a blurry dark gray. (ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li)
When a distant galaxy is observed via a telescope, the light of that Milky Way can come across a different galaxy on the way to the telescope. When that happens, the galaxy works like a magnifying glass for the foreground and gravity ensures that the traveling light rays bend. When Light Rays bends, scientists call it gravity lenses, according to the ESA.
When the background system, the Lensmelkweg and the telescope are in perfect coordination, the image appears as a ring, also known as an Einstein ring.
The Galaxy, called NGC 6506, is around 590 million light years, and this is the first time that the ring of the light around the middle has ever been detected.
“All strong lenses are special because they are so rare, and they are scientifically incredibly useful,” said Conor O’riordan of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. “This is particularly special, because it is so close to the earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful.”
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The text section explains the principle behind the Einstein rings. (ESA)
Einstein rings are based on the general theory theory of physicist Albert Einstein, who predicts that light will bend around objects in space, so they focus the light as giant lenses, ESA said. With the phenomenon, scientists can sometimes see the light of distant galaxies that would otherwise be hidden.
“I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed in a famous galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884,” said Valeria Pettorino, scientist of ESA Euclid Project. “The Galaxy has been known to astronomers for a long time. And yet this ring has never been observed before. This shows how powerful Euclid is, even finding places in places that we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for The future of the Euclid mission and shows its fantastic possibilities.
In the course of the mission, scientists expect Euclid to reveal more about the role of gravity in the universe, as well as the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
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Euclid will map more than a third of heaven and observe billions of galaxies to 10 billion light years away, ESA said. By doing this, scientists expect Euclid to find about 100,000 more strong lenses, although they find such a cosmic close to home and so spectacular, ESA added, “is amazing.”
“Euclid is going to revolutionize the field, with all this data that we have never had before,” said O’riordan.
The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
