The discovery of a galaxy “accidentally” 11 billion light-years from Earth

“Al Jazeera” – Agents:

Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have accidentally discovered a new galaxy 11 billion light-years from Earth.

Scientists have reported seeing a galaxy called SDSS J223010.47-081017.8. Scientists discovered the unusual structure of the gravitational lens because they saw two bright objects mirroring each other, while at the same time there was another strange object nearby, in other words there are three observations of the same galaxy for no apparent reason. .

With the help of two gravitational lensing experts, the researchers determined that the three objects were distorted images of distant, undetected galaxies. But the biggest surprise is that the linear objects are duplicates of each other, a rare phenomenon caused by the precise alignment of the background galaxy and the front lens group. The Hubble telescope was able to make this discovery with a gravitational lens first predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

According to NASA, gravitational lensing occurs when a large object such as a cluster of galaxies creates “a gravitational field that scatters light from galaxies”.

This effect is similar to looking through a magnifying glass and allows researchers to detect early galaxies that are not yet visible using modern technology.

The mirrored images are now named after Timothy Hamilton, an astronomer at Shawney State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, who made the discovery.

“We were really confused,” Hamilton said. “My first thought was that they could interact with galaxies and wave arms. It’s not really relevant, but I do not know what to think about it.”

Hubble was looking at the nuclei of active galaxies called quasars, when two bright images seemed to reflect each other. Richard Griffiths, co-author of the study, said in a statement that think about the surface of the pool on a sunny day showing patterns of bright light at the bottom of the pool.

“These bright patterns below are caused by a similar gravitational lensing effect,” he explained. The ripples on the surface act as partial lenses and focus sunlight below on the glossy zigzag patterns.

“This gravitational lens is very different from most lenses Hubble has read before, especially in the clusters of the Hubble Frontier Fields Survey,” Griffiths added. You don’t have to stare at those teams for long to find multiple lenses. In this body, this is the only lens we have. We didn’t know about the module at first. ”

Images reveal that the galaxy is 11 billion light-years away, while the anterior mass SDSS J223010.47-081017.8 is located 7 billion light-years away.

Astronomers believe that the observations of “Hamilton objects” will provide clues about the nature of the dark object.