Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2022 July 5
   [2]The featured image shows a distant galaxy distorted into a giant arc
   around the center of a galaxy cluster by gravitational lensing. Please
             see the explanation for more detailed information.

                        A Molten Galaxy Einstein Ring
      Image Credit: [3]ESA/[4]Hubble & [5]NASA, [6]S. Jha; Processing:
                              [7]Jonathan Lodge

   Explanation: It is difficult to hide a galaxy behind a cluster of
   galaxies. The closer cluster's gravity will act like a [8]huge lens,
   pulling images of the [9]distant galaxy around the sides and
   [10]greatly distorting them. This is just the case observed in the
   [11]featured image recently re-processed image from the [12]Hubble
   Space Telescope. The cluster [13]GAL-CLUS-022058c is composed of many
   galaxies and is [14]lensing the image of a yellow-red background galaxy
   into [15]arcs seen around the image center. Dubbed a molten
   [16]Einstein ring for its [17]unusual shape, four images of the same
   background galaxy [18]have been identified. Typically, a foreground
   galaxy cluster can only create such smooth arcs if most of its mass is
   [19]smoothly distributed -- and therefore not concentrated in the
   cluster galaxies visible. Analyzing the positions of these
   [20]gravitational arcs gives astronomers a method to estimate the
   [21]dark matter distribution in galaxy clusters, as well as infer when
   the stars in these early galaxies began to form.

   New APOD Social Mirrors in Arabic: On [22]Facebook, [23]Instagram, and
                                 [24]Twitter
                     Tomorrow's picture: star streamers
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [36]Robert Nemiroff ([37]MTU) & [38]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([39]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [40]Specific rights apply.
              [41]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [42]ASD at [43]NASA / [44]GSFC
                           & [45]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2207/MoltenEinsteinRing_HubbleLodge_2972.jpg
   3. https://www.esa.int/
   4. https://esahubble.org/
   5. https://www.nasa.gov/
   6. https://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~saurabh/
   7. https://www.instagram.com/jjlodge
   8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220511.html
   9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210802.html
  10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210823.html
  11. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-sees-a-molten-ring
  12. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/about
  13. https://esahubble.org/images/potw2050a/
  14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens
  15. https://www.space.com/hubble-telescope-molten-ring-photo-distance-calculation
  16. https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2005/32/1788-Image.html
  17. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8c/67/69/8c6769e0323ffa6e7aadf98ddf34d5fe.jpg
  18. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021ApJ...919...48D/abstract
  19. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020ApJ...898...81C/abstract
  20. https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/soar-telescope/news/gravitational-arcs-galaxy-cluster-abel-370
  21. https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy
  22. https://www.facebook.com/APODArabic
  23. https://www.instagram.com/apod.arabic/
  24. https://twitter.com/APODArabic
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220704.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  34. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220705
  35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220706.html
  36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  37. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  38. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  39. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  40. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  41. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  42. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  43. https://www.nasa.gov/
  44. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  45. http://www.mtu.edu/