Hubble spots candidate for most distant known galaxy: In this image, astronomers use the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and a cosmic zoom lens to uncover the farthest known galaxy in the Universe. The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is very young and only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way. The object is observed 420 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. The inset at left shows a close-up of the young dwarf galaxy. This is the latest discovery from a large program that uses massive clusters of galaxies as natural zoom lenses to reveal distant galaxies in the early universe. Called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH), the program allows astronomers to use the gravity of massive galaxy clusters to magnify distant galaxies behind them, an effect called gravitational lensing. In this Hubble observation, astronomers used the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647.7+7015 as the giant cosmic telescope. The bright yellow galaxies near the center of the image are cluster members. The cluster’s gravity boosted the light from the faraway galaxy, making its image appear approximately eight times brighter than it otherwise would. The gravitational lensing technique allowed astronomers to detect the galaxy more efficiently and with greater confidence. Without the cluster’s magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen this remote galaxy. This image is a composite taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The observations were taken 5 October and 29 November 2011.

Name: MCS J0647.7+7015
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally LensedEarly Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : ClusterEarly Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Lensing
Category: Cosmology
Distance: z=11.0 (redshift)
Release date: 15 November 2012, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Postman and D. Coe (Space Telescope Science Institute), and the CLASH team

Hubble spots three magnified views of most distant known galaxy: In this image, astronomers use the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and a cosmic zoom lens to uncover the farthest known galaxy in the Universe. The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is very young and only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way. The object is observed 420 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. Astronomers used the powerful gravity from the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7014 to magnify the light from the distant galaxy, an effect called gravitational lensing. The bright yellow galaxies near the center of the image are cluster members. Due to the gravitational lensing technique, astronomers observed three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope. The cluster’s gravity boosted the light from the faraway galaxy, making the images appear approximately eight, seven, and two times brighter than they otherwise would, enabling astronomers to detect them more efficiently and with greater confidence. Without the cluster’s magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen this remote galaxy. The three close-up images of the magnified galaxy appear in the inset at left. This is the latest discovery from a large program, called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH), that uses natural zoom lenses to reveal distant galaxies in the early Universe. This image is a composite taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The observations were taken 5 October and 29 November 2011.

Name: MCS J0647.7+7015
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally LensedEarly Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : ClusterEarly Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Lensing
Category: Cosmology
Distance: z=11.0 (redshift)
Release date: 15 November 2012, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Postman and D. Coe (Space Telescope Science Institute), and the CLASH team

Galaxy cluster MACS J0647.7+7015: This view from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647.7+7015. Astronomers used the powerful gravity from the cluster to magnify the light from a distant galaxy, using an effect called gravitational lensing. The bright yellow galaxies near the center of the image are cluster members; due to the gravitational lensing technique, astronomers observed three magnified images of a far more distant galaxy called MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope. These are visible as small red dots in this image. This is the latest discovery from a large program, called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH), that uses natural zoom lenses to reveal distant galaxies in the early Universe. This image is a composite taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The observations were taken 5 October and 29 November 2011.

Name: MCS J0647.7+7015
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally LensedEarly Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : LensingUnspecified : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Constellation: Camelopardalis
Distance: z=11.0 (redshift)
Release date: 15 November 2012, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Postman and D. Coe (Space Telescope Science Institute), and the CLASH team

Hubble view of NGC 922: An almost complete circle of bright pink nebulae skirts around a spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 922. The ring structure and the galaxy’s distorted spiral shape result from a smaller galaxy scoring a cosmic bullseye, hitting the centre of NGC 922 some 330 million years ago.

Name: NGC 922
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Ring
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Fornax
Distance: 150 million light years
Release date: 6 December 2012, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA

Hubble and Chandra composite view of NGC 922: An almost complete circle of bright pink nebulae skirts around a spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 922. The ring structure and the galaxy’s distorted spiral shape result from a smaller galaxy scoring a cosmic bullseye, hitting the centre of NGC 922 some 330 million years ago. Dotted over this and shown in blue are X-ray sources dotted around the galaxy, spotted with the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Name: NGC 922
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Ring
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Fornax
Distance: 150 million light years
Release date: 6 December 2012, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC

Wide-field view of the area around NGC 922 (ground-based image): This image from a ground-based telescope shows the region around NGC 922, a galaxy with a bright ring of nebulae caused by a collision with another, smaller galaxy, which passed straight through NGC 922. This smaller galaxy, called 2MASXI J0224301-244443 is visible as a small blob to the right of NGC 922, the bright galaxy in the centre of the field. The orange line crossing the image is a satellite passing above the telescope during the observations.

Name: NGC 922
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Ring
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Fornax
Distance: 150 million light years
Release date: 6 December 2012, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 (Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin)