Latest news with #ConorO'Riordan
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Space telescope spots rare 'Einstein ring' of light around galaxy in our cosmic neighborhood
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Europe's Euclid space telescope has detected a rare halo of bright light around a nearby galaxy, astronomers reported Monday. The halo, known as an Einstein ring, encircles a galaxy 590 million light-years away, considered close by cosmic standards. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Astronomers have known about this galaxy for more than a century and so were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring, reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. An Einstein ring is light from a much more distant galaxy that bends in such a way as to perfectly encircle a closer object, in this case a well-known galaxy in the constellation Draco. The faraway galaxy creating the ring is more than 4 billion light-years away. Gravity distorted the light from this more distant galaxy, thus the name honoring Albert Einstein. The process is known as gravitational lensing. 'All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it's so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful," lead author Conor O'Riordan of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics said in a statement. Euclid rocketed from Florida in 2023. NASA is taking part in its mission to detect dark energy and dark matter in the universe. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press
Voice of America
10-02-2025
- Science
- Voice of America
Space telescope spots rare 'Einstein ring' of light
Europe's Euclid space telescope has detected a rare halo of bright light around a nearby galaxy, astronomers reported Monday. The halo, known as an Einstein ring, encircles a galaxy 590 million light-years away, considered close by cosmic standards. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Astronomers have known about this galaxy for more than a century and so were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring, reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. An Einstein ring is light from a much more distant galaxy that bends in such a way as to perfectly encircle a closer object, in this case a well-known galaxy in the constellation Draco. The faraway galaxy creating the ring is more than 4 billion light-years away. Gravity distorted the light from this more distant galaxy, thus the name honoring Albert Einstein. The process is known as gravitational lensing. "All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it's so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful," lead author Conor O'Riordan of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics said in a statement. Euclid rocketed from Florida in 2023. NASA is taking part in its mission to detect dark energy and dark matter in the universe.
Asharq Al-Awsat
10-02-2025
- Science
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Space Telescope Spots Rare ‘Einstein Ring' of Light around Galaxy in Our Cosmic Neighborhood
Europe's Euclid space telescope has detected a rare halo of bright light around a nearby galaxy, astronomers reported Monday. The halo, known as an Einstein ring, encircles a galaxy 590 million light-years away, considered close by cosmic standards. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Astronomers have known about this galaxy for more than a century and so were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring, reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. An Einstein ring is light from a much more distant galaxy that bends in such a way as to perfectly encircle a closer object, in this case a well-known galaxy in the constellation Draco. The faraway galaxy creating the ring is more than 4 billion light-years away. Gravity distorted the light from this more distant galaxy, thus the name honoring Albert Einstein. The process is known as gravitational lensing. "All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it's so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful," lead author Conor O'Riordan of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics said in a statement. Euclid rocketed from Florida in 2023. NASA is taking part in its mission to detect dark energy and dark matter in the universe.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Extremely rare ‘Einstein ring' discovered close to Earth
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid space telescope has discovered an extremely rare Einstein ring. Einstein rings of light are produced when two galaxies are almost perfectly aligned, with one behind the other from a fixed perspective. They are one of the best examples we have of gravitational lensing–a phenomenon that Albert Einstein predicted in 1915. The ring and other findings are detailed in a study published February 10 in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. In space, gravitational lensing occurs when the energy in a massive celestial body like a galaxy cluster creates enough of a curve in spacetime for the path of light around it to appear bent as if by a lens. The celestial body that is causing the light to curve is called a gravitational lens, which should be able to help us detect the light from hidden galaxies. According to Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, light will bend around objects in space, so that they focus the light the way that a lens does. This resulting gravitational lensing effect is larger for the bigger objects, such as galaxies and galaxy clusters. The lensing means that astronomers can sometimes see the light coming from far away galaxies that would otherwise be hidden. If they are aligned just right, the light from the distant source galaxy will bend to form a ring around the foreground object–called an Einstein ring. 'An Einstein ring is an example of strong gravitational lensing,' Conor O'Riordan, a study co-author and astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, said in a statement. 'All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it's so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful.' Studying the gravitational effects of Einstein rings can help scientists learn more about the expansion of the universe, detect the effects of invisible dark matter and dark energy, and probe background sources of light that are bent by dark matter. The Einstein ring that Euclid spotted is located in the galaxy NGC 6505. It is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Earth at 590 million light-years away. This is the first time that the ring of light surrounding its center has been detected. The ring situated around the foreground galaxy is made up of light from a galaxy that is further out and more luminous. This background galaxy is about 4.42 billion light-years away and its light has been distorted by gravity as it travels. The far-away galaxy has not been observed before and does not have a name. [ Related: Dark energy fills the cosmos. But what is it? ] 'I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed within a well-known galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884,' Valeria Pettorino, a study co-author and ESA Euclid Project Scientist, said in a statement. 'The galaxy has been known to astronomers for a very long time. And yet this ring was never observed before. This demonstrates how powerful Euclid is, finding new things even in places we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for the future of the Euclid mission and demonstrates its fantastic capabilities.' Euclid kicked-off its six-year mission on July 1, 2023. The space telescope's primary job is to explore the dark universe, searching for the more subtle effects of weak gravitational lensing. Here, background galaxies appear to be only mildly stretched or displaced. In order to detect this effect, scientists will need to analyze billions of galaxies. Euclid began its detailed survey of the sky on February 14, 2024 and is gradually creating an extensive 3D map of the universe. The space telescope is expected to map more than one third of the sky, observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. Astronomers expect Euclid to spot 100,000 strong lenses. However, the team says that finding a gravitational lens like this one so close to home is exciting. Less than 1,000 strong lenses were previously known to astronomers and even fewer have been imaged at high resolution. 'Euclid is going to revolutionise the field, with all this data we've never had before,' said Conor.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers Amazed by Perfect 'Einstein Ring' Gleaming in Space
Around a galaxy just 590 million light-years away, astronomers have discovered a stunning example of one of the rarest phenomena in our skies: a perfect ring of light. The phenomenon is known as an Einstein ring, and it was discovered circumscribing the galaxy NGC 6505 in data collected by the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope. And, while such rings have been found before, such a spectacularly perfect example is rarer still. "An Einstein ring is an example of strong gravitational lensing," says astronomer Conor O'Riordan of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany. "All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it's so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful." A gravitational lens is what happens when space-time warps around mass. Picture a trampoline mat with a bowling ball on it. The way the mat stretches is similar to the way space-time stretches and curves around a large mass plopped in its midst. Galaxies and galaxy clusters are usually the masses in question, but the effect scales for anything with mass, including you. However, when the mass is particularly large, it creates an interesting effect: any light traveling from a distance beyond the lensing object warps, smears, and magnifies as it travels through the curved space-time. This can be extremely useful for studying the distant Universe – and it can also be extraordinarily pretty. In the case of the newly discovered Einstein ring, the light that encircles the near galaxy is from a more distant galaxy, sitting some 4.42 billion light-years away, whose light has been warped by the curvature of space-time around NGC 6505. It's a very lucky arrangement of objects: they are aligned in such a way that the distant galaxy's light is stretched into a perfect ring, with brighter blobs representing replicated images of the galaxy at four points around the ring. And the closeness of NGC 6505 makes it even more astonishing. Only five other lenses have been discovered so close; simulations suggest this new lens only had a 0.05 percent chance of existing, never mind being discovered. The more distant galaxy had never been seen before; now, scientists have the perfect tool to study it in greater detail than would be possible without the lens. "I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed within a well-known galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884," says astronomer Valeria Pettorino of the ESA. "The galaxy has been known to astronomers for a very long time. And yet this ring was never observed before. This demonstrates how powerful Euclid is, finding new things even in places we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for the future of the Euclid mission and demonstrates its fantastic capabilities." The distant galaxy, which is yet to be named, is also yet to be studied in detail. That will undoubtedly be the focus of future work. The discovery itself, however, is one to marvel at – the first Einstein ring ever discovered circling one of the 7,840 objects in the New General Catalogue. It also shows that Euclid is functioning exactly as it should. The telescope is designed to look for gravitational lenses to try and map and understand the invisible dark matter and dark energy that make up most of the matter-energy density of the Universe. Its discovery of one so quickly, around a galaxy we've been studying for 140 years, is promising. The researchers suggest that the object be named Altieri's Lens for astronomer Bruno Altieri of the European Space Agency, who discovered the object in Euclid data from the telescope's testing phase in 2023. "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," Altieri says. "For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing." The research has been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Astronomers Capture Breathtaking Image of Newborn Star Taking Shape The Risk of Space Junk Hitting Planes Is Rising in The Era of SpaceX Mysterious Radiation Belts Detected Around Earth After Epic Solar Storm
