Space

Hubble Captures Stunning Images Of Ultrabright Galaxies

Elaine Hannah
First Posted: Jun 13, 2017 06:13 AM EDT

Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of stunning images of ultrabright galaxies in space. They are like glowing jewels of cosmic light.

These galaxies are huge collections of stars that each one could illuminate 10,000 times than the Milky Way in the infrared range. This is about 10 to 100 trillion times the brightness of the Sun. The star formation could reach up to 10,000 new stars each year, according to Cosmos Magazine.

James Lowenthal, an astronomy professor at Smith College in Massachusetts and the lead researcher of the Hubble survey, said that these ultra-luminous, massive, starburst galaxies are very rare. He further said that the gravitational lensing magnifies them so that one can see small details that are otherwise unimaginable. He added that they see features as small as about 100 light-years or less across. The scientists want to determine what could empower these monsters. Meanwhile, the gravitational lensing could make them understand these in greater detail.

In the images, one may see strange shapes. These include the arcs of light, streaks and rings that are a result of a cosmic phenomenon called gravitational lensing. With this, the foreground galaxy is like a lens that warps and magnifies the light from a more distant galaxy.

Many stars eject lots of gas and dust in the time of their birth and death. This could block the galaxies in many wavelengths of light. On the other hand, the infrared light could enter those layers.

These galaxies were first detected by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite. There will be more studies that will be conducted to examine these galaxies.

Meanwhile, Hubble Space Telescope had shown that the gravitational lensing could make them brighter and viewable. The researchers are also trying to figure out if the strange features such as the curves and arcs of light are artificial features produced by the lensing effect or they are actual features in the galaxies, according to Space.com. 

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