The Einstein Cross
eso_eso0847a December 12th, 2008
Credit: ESO/F. Courbin et al
The Einstein Cross and the galaxy that causes this 'cosmic mirage', as seen with the FORS instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. This cross-shaped configuration consists of four images of a single very distant source. The multiple images are a result of gravitational lensing by a foreground galaxy, an effect that was predicted by Albert Einstein as a consequence of his theory of general relativity. The light source in the Einstein Cross is a quasar approximately ten billion light-years away, whereas the foreground lensing galaxy is ten times closer. The light from the quasar is bent in its path and magnified by the gravitational field of the lensing galaxy.
Provider: European Southern Observatory
Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0847a/
Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- eso0847a
- Subject Category
- E.5.1.8 E.5.3.2.1
- Subject Name
- Einstein Cross, Gravitational Microlensing
- Credits
- ESO/F. Courbin et al
- Release Date
- 2008-12-12T00:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0847a/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Very Large Telescope
- Instrument
- FORS1
- Color Assignment
- Grayscale
- Band
- Optical
- Bandpass
- Central Wavelength
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 340.126264148, 3.35843966482
- Reference Dimension
- 1024.0, 1024.0
- Reference Pixel
- 512.0, 512.0
- Scale
- -2.7729939813e-05, 2.7729939813e-05
- Rotation
- 0
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- European Southern Observatory
- URL
- http://www.eso.org/
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
- City
- Garching bei München
- State/Province
- Postal Code
- D-85748
- Country
- Germany
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- European Southern Observatory
- Publisher ID
- eso
- Resource ID
- eso0847a
- Resource URL
- https://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/original/eso0847a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2023-10-11T09:26:37.634487
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
