Merging galaxies in the distant Universe through a gravitational magnifying glass: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes on the ground and in space have been used to obtain the best view yet of a collision that took place between two galaxies when the Universe was only half its current age. The astronomers enlisted the help of a galaxy-sized magnifying glass to reveal otherwise invisible detail. These new studies of the galaxy H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836 have shown that this complex and distant object looks surprisingly like the well-known local galaxy collision, the Antennae Galaxies. In this picture, which combines views from Hubble and the Keck-II telescope on Hawaii (using adaptive optics), you can see a foreground galaxy that is acting as the gravitational lens. The galaxy resembles how our home galaxy, the Milky Way, would appear if seen edge-on. But around this galaxy there is an almost complete ring — the smeared out image of a star-forming galaxy merger far beyond.

Name: H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Virgo
Release date: 26 August 2014, 18:00
Credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/W. M. Keck Observatory

How gravitational lensing acts as a magnifying glass — diagram: This diagram shows how the effect of gravitational lensing around a normal galaxy focuses the light coming from a very distant star-forming galaxy merger to created a distorted, but brighter view. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes on the ground and in space have enlisted the help of a galaxy-sized magnifying glass to reveal otherwise invisible detail and obtain the best view yet of a collision that took place between two galaxies when the Universe was only half its current age. The image showing these combined observations can be seen in the inset. These new studies of the galaxy H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836 have shown that this complex and distant object looks surprisingly like the well-known local galaxy collision, the Antennae Galaxies.

Name: H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 26 August 2014, 18:00
Credit: ESA/ESO/M. Kornmesser

Wide-field view of the sky around the gravitationally lensed galaxy merger H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836: This wide-field view of the sky around the gravitationally lensed galaxy merger H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836 was created from images in the Digitized Sky Survey 2. This comparatively empty patch of sky features few stars and many faint galaxies — including one that has by chance acted like a magnifying glass and focussed light from a much dimmer and remote star-forming galaxy merger.

Name: H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Category: Stars
Constellation: Virgo
Release date: 26 August 2014, 18:00
Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

A Cauldron of Star Birth in the Center of a Young Galaxy: This illustration reveals the celestial fireworks deep inside the core of a developing galaxy in the young Universe, as seen from a hypothetical planetary system. The sky is depicted as ablaze with the glow from nebulae, fledgling star clusters, and stars exploding as supernovae. The rapidly forming core may eventually become the heart of a mammoth galaxy similar to one of the giant elliptical galaxies seen today.

Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Component : Center/Core
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 27 August 2014, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and G. Bacon (Space Telescope Science Institute)

Distant galaxy core in the Hubble GOODS North field: This image shows observations of a newly discovered galaxy core dubbed GOODS-N-774, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. The core is marked by the box inset, overlaid on a section of the Hubble GOODS-N, or GOODS North, field (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). This is the first time that a galaxy has been spotted in this stage of formation — a very early stage where the dense galactic core is still furiously churning out newborn stars. GOODS-N-774 is seen here as it appeared eleven billion years ago, just three billion years after the Big Bang. After this stage, galaxies like this are thought to build up from the inside out, expanding outwards via mergers with other smaller galaxies to become the giant quiescent elliptical galaxies we see in the nearby Universe.

Name: GOODS-N-774, GOODS North Field
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 27 August 2014, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Nelson (Yale University, USA)

Section of Hubble GOODS North field: This image is from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope survey GOODS North (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). The image is aglow with galaxies but to the bottom right, highlighted in the annotated image, is a galaxy of particular interest. A compact galactic core dubbed GOODS-N-774 and the first galaxy spotted in this stage of formation — a very early stage where the dense galactic core is still furiously churning out newborn stars.

Name: GOODS-N-774, GOODS North Field
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Release date: 27 August 2014, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Nelson (Yale University, USA)

Inset view of distant galaxy GOODS-N-774: This image shows observations of a newly discovered galaxy core dubbed GOODS-N-774, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. This galaxy core was spotted in part of the Hubble GOODS-N field (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). The core can be seen in its larger context in the annotated image of Hubble's GOODS North field. This is the first time that a galaxy has been spotted at this stage of formation — a very early stage where the dense galactic core is still furiously churning out newborn stars. GOODS-N-774 is seen here as it appeared eleven billion years ago, just three billion years after the Big Bang. After this stage, galaxies like this are thought to build up "inside out", expanding outwards via mergers with other smaller galaxies to become giant elliptical galaxies.

Name: GOODS-N-774, GOODS North Field
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Release date: 27 August 2014, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Nelson (Yale University)

Artist’s concept of supermassive black hole within M60-UCD1: This is an illustration of the supermassive black hole located in the middle of the very dense galaxy M60-UCD1. It weighs as much as 21 million times the mass of our Sun. Lying about 50 million light-years away, M60-UCD1 is a tiny galaxy with a diameter of 300 light-years — just 1/500th of the diameter of the Milky Way! Despite its size it is pretty crowded, containing some 140 million stars. Because no light can escape from the black hole, it appears simply in silhouette against the starry background. The black hole’s intense gravitational field warps the light of the background stars to form ring-like images just outside the dark edges of the black hole’s event horizon. Combined observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Gemini North telescope determined the presence of the black hole inside M60-UCD1.

Name: M60-UCD1
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Distance: 50 million light years
Release date: 17 September 2014, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Coe, G. Bacon (STScI)