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Quasar Lenses

March 16, 2012
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's sharp view was used to look for gravitational arcs and rings which are produced when one galaxy acts as a lens to magnify and distort the appearance of another galaxy behind it.


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The Hubble Space Telescope's sharp view was used to look for gravitational arcs and rings (indicated by arrows in inserts above), which are produced when one galaxy acts as a lens to magnify and distort the appearance of another galaxy behind it. In this case, the foreground galaxies contain actively accreting black holes called quasars.

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