A galactic pearl in a distorted shell

IF 12.9 1区物理与天体物理 Q1 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2025-04-17 DOI:10.1038/s41550-025-02545-3

Bokyoung Kim

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This recent JWST image shows a galaxy-scale strong lensing system, consisting of a distant spiral galaxy that is being lensed by a bright, massive elliptical galaxy in the galaxy cluster SMACSJ0028.2-7537. This combined image is composed of four individual images obtained using the JWST’s Near-InfraRed Camera, shown in yellow and red, along with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, which are represented in blue. Several blue arcs wrapping around the elliptical galaxy appear to be the distorted light from gas structures of the lensed spiral galaxy, which also includes several bright star clusters. The core of the spiral galaxy appears multiple times around the lensing galaxy, with two bright yellow clumps visible at the six and two o’clock positions, respectively. Thanks to the lensing magnification, we can observe these structures in such detail.

This image was captured by JWST as part of the Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey (PI: Guillaume Mahler/University of Liège), which aims to observe 182 massive galaxy clusters across a redshift range of 0.2 to 1.9. The SLICE team seeks to understand the mass structure of galaxy clusters, including the dark matter distribution. The early results from the SLICE survey (C. Cerny et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17498; 2025) provide observations of 14 massive galaxy clusters with redshifts ranging from 0.25 to 1.06. In this early data analysis, the team modelled the global mass profile of each galaxy cluster to study the inner mass distribution, although the detailed analysis of the strong lensing system in this image is not included in the paper.

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一颗扭曲壳中的银河珍珠

这张最近的JWST图像显示了一个星系尺度的强透镜系统，由一个遥远的螺旋星系组成，它被星系团SMACSJ0028.2-7537中的一个明亮的大质量椭圆星系透镜。这张组合图像是由四个单独的图像组成的，这些图像是由JWST的近红外相机获得的，用黄色和红色表示，还有哈勃的广角相机3和高级巡天相机，用蓝色表示。环绕椭圆星系的几个蓝色弧线似乎是透镜螺旋星系的气体结构发出的扭曲光，其中还包括几个明亮的星团。螺旋星系的核心在透镜星系周围出现多次，在六点钟和两点钟位置分别可以看到两个明亮的黄色团块。由于透镜的放大，我们可以如此详细地观察这些结构。这张照片是由JWST拍摄的，作为强透镜和星团演化（SLICE）调查的一部分（PI: Guillaume Mahler/ li大学），目的是在0.2到1.9的红移范围内观察182个大质量星系团。SLICE团队试图了解星系团的质量结构，包括暗物质的分布。SLICE调查的早期结果（C. Cerny et al.）。预印本：https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17498；2025)提供了14个大质量星系团的观测数据，红移范围从0.25到1.06。在这个早期的数据分析中，研究小组模拟了每个星系团的全球质量分布，以研究内部质量分布，尽管这张图像中对强透镜系统的详细分析没有包括在论文中。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Nature Astronomy Physics and Astronomy-Astronomy and Astrophysics

CiteScore

19.50

自引率

2.80%

发文量

252

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