Slashdot Mirror
Hubble Finds Double Einstein Ring
Einstein Duble brings us news that astronomers using the Hubble Telescope have discovered an extremely rare double Einstein Ring. Occasionally, galaxies or other bright objects are located in such a way that they are behind another galaxy when viewed from Earth. When light from the further galaxy passes a sufficiently massive closer galaxy, the path of the light is bent inward from all sides, creating a "ring" effect. In this case, not one, but two galaxies are directly behind the foreground galaxy, so the gravitational lens produces two distinct rings. Quoting Presscue:
"The distribution of dark matter in the foreground galaxies that is warping space to create the gravitational lens can be precisely mapped. In addition, the geometry of the two Einstein rings allowed the team to measure the mass of the middle galaxy precisely to be a value of 1 billion solar masses. The team reports that this is the first measurement of the mass of a dwarf galaxy at cosmological distance (redshift of z=0.6)."
That upgrade is on hold. The problems that knocked the latest Atlantis mission back into February have jacked up the schedule. So it was planned for August but now it will be later. I would think that with eol for the shuttle and hubble both rapidly approaching - any more problems or serious delays and it could get knocked from on hold to canceled.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
And the other problem is the masses of all the galaxies are different. The dwarf galaxy wouldn't act as a lens for them in the same way that the massive galaxy does for us.
Another article on this double ring find.