* Astronomy

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RE: IDCS J1426.5+3508

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Galaxy Cluster and Giant Arc

Credit: NASA/ESA/University of Florida, Gainsville/University of Missouri-Kansas City/UC Davis

These images, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, show an arc of blue light behind an extremely massive cluster of galaxies residing 10 billion light-years away.

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NASA's Hubble Spots Rare Gravitational Arc from Distant, Hefty Galaxy Cluster

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found a puzzling arc of light behind an extremely massive cluster of galaxies residing 10 billion light-years away. The galactic grouping, discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, was observed when the universe was roughly a quarter of its current age of 13.7 billion years.
The giant arc is the stretched shape of a more distant galaxy whose light is distorted by the monster cluster's powerful gravity, an effect called gravitational lensing. The trouble is, the arc shouldn't exist.
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