Hubble portraits of celestial dragons and giant butterflies

David Shiga
New Scientist
Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:18 UTC

© NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team/ST-ECF

The most dramatic example of gravitational lensing seen in the previous slide is this dragon-like shape, which is made up of multiple images of a spiral galaxy that lies some 10 billion light years from Earth (seen most clearly as the head of the dragon). Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys reveals unprecedented detail in this lensed galaxy.

See a gallery of the new Hubble images.

Only four of the five galaxies seen in this Wide Field Camera 3 view of Stephan's Quintet are physically associated with one another. The one at lower left is in the foreground and only aligned with the others in the sky by chance. The four others, including two that overlap in the middle of the image, are interacting with each other gravitationally.

© NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team