Hubble Spots Massive Galaxy Cluster: Abell 1300

NASA has released a stunning image snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxy cluster Abell 1300.

This image, taken with ACS and WFC3 cameras on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1300. Seven filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Abell 1300 is located in the constellation Crater, approximately 3 billion light-years from Earth.

It was named after its discoverer, American astronomer George O. Abell.

Massive galaxy clusters such as Abell 1300 help astronomers to better understand the cosmos.

They are essentially giant natural telescopes, magnifying the light from any galaxies sitting behind them and helping us peer further back in time.

This bizarre kind of time travel is possible due to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, whereby the gravitational influence of a massive object such as Abell 1300 acts like a lens, bending the very fabric of space around it and thus causing more distant light to move in a curved path.

To the observer, the source of the light — a background object such as a primordial galaxy, for example — appears both distorted and magnified.

The lensing power of massive clusters has helped us to discover some of the most distant known galaxies in the Universe.

This image of Abell 1300 was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide-Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instruments as part of an observing program called Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS).

RELICS imaged 41 massive galaxy clusters over the course of 390 Hubble orbits and 100 Spitzer Space Telescope observing hours, aiming to find the brightest distant galaxies.

Studying these galaxies in more detail with both current telescopes and the future NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope will hopefully tell us more about our cosmic origins.

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