The term gravitational lens became popular recently when Telescope James Webb owned by the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) captures the clearest images of the most distant galaxies. So, what does this term actually mean?
Launch Science, gravitational lens is the term applied to light that is attracted by the gravitational force of a large object in the universe. This gravitational pull can distort or bend light.
Strong gravitational lenses can bend light so much that it gives rise to many photos of galaxies emitting light. Meanwhile, weak gravitational lenses produce galaxies that are distorted, stretched, or enlarged.
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Although it is difficult to measure individual galaxies, galaxies that are clustered together will exhibit the same gravitational lensing pattern. Analysis of the character of the gravitational lens pattern showed astronomers how dark matter was distributed among galaxies and their distance from Earth.
The method provides an investigation to investigate both the structure of development in the universe and the expansion within it.
Meanwhile, quoting Hubble Site, gravitational lenses can appear in simple or complex forms. Simple gravitational lensing occurs when there is a single concentration of material at a central point, such as the dense core of a galaxy.
Light from distant galaxies circles the material’s core, which usually produces multiple photos of the galaxy in the background.
When the gravitational lens is symmetrical, a perfect or nearly perfect circle is formed. The circle was later called the Einstein Ring.
The James Webb telescope thanks to its sophistication helped many of the emergence of the Einstein Ring be known to astronomers.
Meanwhile, a more complex gravitational lens emerged through observations of large galaxy clusters. When the distribution of material in the cluster has a central point, the material is never circularly symmetrical and can be very viscous.
The background galaxies are then subjected to the gravitational lensing effect of these large galaxy clusters and their view is usually short, thinning around the cluster.
Because these very distant galaxies are usually faint, gravitational lenses widen the range of the Hubble Telescope deeper into the universe. The gravitational lens not only distorts the image of the galaxy in the background, but expands the light.
The James Webb telescope can see galaxies that are fainter and more distant than previously possible. The simple analogy is like having an additional lens the size of the galaxy cluster.
Thanks to its sophistication, the Hubble Telescope itself produces clear photos of the farthest galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723. The view of the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster is its manifestation 4.6 billion years ago, because the galaxy’s distance from the telescope is 4.6 billion light years.
Quoted from Constellation GuideThis galaxy cluster, also named SMACS J0723.3-7327, is located in the southern constellation Volans (Flying Fish) which is 4.24 billion light years from Earth.
The plane image in SMACS 0723 covers an area of only 2.4 arc minutes (arcminute, unit of degree circle). The coordinate position is at right ascension 07 hours 23 minutes 19.5 seconds, and with a declamation angle of -73° 27′ 15.6″.
(can/lth)
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