Hubble Captures Amazing Pictures Through its Gravitational Lens. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first of a group of five star-shaped quasar stars.
What is Gravitational Lensing?
The effect of the many images seen in the Hubble image is produced by a process called gravitational lensing, in which the gravitational field of a large object – in this case, a galaxy which bends and magnifies light into an object,in this case, a quasar which is behind it.
The back of the quasar is the bright backbone of the galaxy. It is powered by a black hole, which consumes gas and dust and creates a stream of light in the process.
How Was The Picture Taken?
When a quasar light passes through the gravitational force of the galaxy between us and the quasar, light is trapped by a magnetic field that rotates in the atmosphere in such a way as to produce five different images of the object surrounding the center of the galaxy. The fifth quasar image is embedded to the right of the center of the central galaxy in the collection. The collection also creates a web of images of other distant galaxies hanging from the arcs.