ESA's Euclid spacecraft spots 'stunning' rare Einstein Ring in far off galaxy
Euclid, the ESA spacecraft launched in July 2023 designed to observe deep space in the hope of unlocking the mysteries of the universe, spotted its first strong gravitational lens as it set about to construct the most precise 3D map ever created of the known universe.
"Even from that first observation, I could see it, but after Euclid made more observations of the area, we could see a perfect Einstein ring," Bruno Altieri, the ESA's Euclid archive scientist. "For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing."
The Einstein Ring, according to the Paris-based European Space Agency, is an "extremely rare phenomenon."
However, this new ring discovered by Euclid has "unique characteristics," Massimo Meneghetti, team member and National Institute for Astrophysics researcher, wrote in a statement.
This new discovery, however, "turned out to be hiding in plain sight in a galaxy not far away" called NGC 6505 some 590 million light-years from Earth which, ESA officials continued, was "a stone's throw away in cosmic terms."
"It is truly rare to find a galaxy relatively close to us, like this one found in the NGC catalog (New Galaxy Catalog), one of the catalogs of nearby galaxies that acts as a strong gravitational lens," Meneghetti says.
Due to Euclid's high-resolution instruments, officials said this was the first time that the ring of light surrounding its center was detected.
Its background galaxy was measured at 4.42 billion light-years away, but its light has "been distorted by gravity" on its way to Earth.
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts that light will bend around objects in space. But this find was described as "particularly special" due to it's close proximity to Earth.
"An Einstein ring is an example of strong gravitational lensing," explained Conor O'Riordan, of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.
It was located in a "well-known" galaxy first discovered in 1884.
"All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically," added O'Riordan, also lead author of the first scientific paper to analyzing the ring.
The ESA released a first set of five images from its Euclid space telescope November 2023 some four months after its launch. Its expected map out more than a third of the sky and will observe billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light years away.
"Euclid is going to revolutionize the field, with all this data we've never had before," according to O'Riordan.
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