Hubble's 'Zoom Lens' Benefits Astronomers With Close Up View of a Galaxy

(EndPlay Staff Reports) - The Hubble Telescope has made it possible to study the physical properties of a galaxy of forming stars when the universe was much younger.

NASA credits a natural "zoom lens" for the view of what the agency calls the brightest magnified galaxy discovered so far. (View the images here ).

Astronomers want to see how star formation progressed deep within these galaxies. But without this natural phenomenon that would be beyond Hubble's capability, according to the NASA team led by Jane Rigby of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The team said in a Hubble news release that the lens helps show how the galaxies developed, especially distant galaxies that shed light on the formation of the universe, perhaps billions of years ago, they said. The team noted that light from those early events is only now arriving at Earth.

This gravitational lens occurs when space is warped by a massive foreground object. This can be a cluster of galaxies, the Sun, or a black hole. The amazing views happen when light from more-distant background objects pass through this gravitationally disturbed region and become distorted, brightened and magnified, reported NASA in a news release .

Astronomers were able to reconstruct what the galaxy really looked like, which was made difficult by the cluster's "funhouse-mirror effect," said the Hubble release .

But because of Hubble's sharp vision, astronomers were able to eliminate the distortions and reconstruct the galaxy image as it would normally look.

The team said the reconstruction revealed regions of star formation that glowed much like bright Christmas tree bulbs. They also said the image was far brighter than any star-formation region in our Milky Way galaxy, according to Universe Today .