“Einstein’s Cross” shining in the constellation Hercules[Today’s space image]

[SAPOD]Today’s “Space Image”. We introduce characteristic images introduced by sorae in the past, attractive images released by space agencies of various countries, and images submitted by space astronomy fans and experts. (There is a link to the original article at the end of the article)

(Source: sorae portal site to the universe)

Source

Image Credit: ESO/A. Cikota et al.
sorae – Einstein’s cross shining in the constellation Hercules photographed by a large telescope in South America

This was introduced by sorae in an article on September 16, 2023.Einstein’s Cross in Hercules“is.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) likens the four bluish-white lights arranged like a cross around an orange glow to “petals of a flower.” Such a celestial object does not really exist, but is actually an apparent appearance created by the “gravitational lensing effect.”

In the case of this celestial body, the direction of light emitted by distant galaxies changes depending on the mass of the orange galaxy located at the center, and from the Earth’s perspective, the image appears to be split into four parts. There is.

Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon whose existence was predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, so what appears to be split like a cross like the one in the image is called the “Einstein Cross”. Also known as the Einstein cross.

Glossary

[gravitational lens]
Gravitational lensing is when space-time is distorted by the mass of a celestial object in the foreground (lensed object), which changes the direction of light emitted from the celestial object on the other side (light source), causing a distorted image on Earth. This is a phenomenon in which the image of the same celestial body appears to be magnified or split into multiple parts.

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