WORLDTECHNASA Hubble image shows lensing galaxy ahead of Roman telescope
Full credit
File:NASA-HS201427a-HubbleUltraDeepField2014-20140603.jpg / NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI) / http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/27/image/a/ ( image link ) / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA-HS201427a-HubbleUltraDeepField2014-20140603.jpgSource page
NASA has released a Hubble Space Telescope picture of a broad barred galaxy and a gravitational lens, one of a series of observations taken ahead of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
What the picture contains
The image, released by NASA in a news release, puts a sweeping barred galaxy at its centre of attention. A sinuous spiral galaxy sits in the same field of view near the middle, while a vivid gravitational lens appears in the lower right corner, which NASA identifies as the real target of the observation.
Huang of the University of San Francisco is credited with the observation, and Gladys Kober of NASA and the Catholic University of America with the processing.
Groundwork for the Roman mission
According to NASA, this observation is one of many gravitational lensing images that the Hubble Space Telescope has taken to prepare for science with the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The release presents the Hubble work as groundwork for that later mission rather than as a finished result of its own.
Open questions
- How many further lensing images does NASA plan to take for the Roman telescope?