{"id":9363,"date":"2024-09-18T20:07:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T00:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=9363"},"modified":"2024-09-18T20:07:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T00:07:12","slug":"magnifying-deep-space-through-the-carousel-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=9363","title":{"rendered":"Magnifying Deep Space Through the \u201cCarousel Lens\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1025px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/newscenter.lbl.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Newscenter_Featured_1025x685px-DESI-RGB-Blank-4web.jpg\" width=\"1025\" height=\"685\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1025px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1025\/685;\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Carousel Lens, as seen through the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: William Sheu\/UCLA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a rare and extraordinary discovery, researchers have identified a unique configuration of galaxies that form the most exquisitely aligned gravitational lens found to date. The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/ad65d3\"><u>Carousel Lens<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;is a massive cluster-scale gravitational lens system that will enable researchers to delve deeper into the mysteries of the cosmos, including dark matter and dark energy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an amazingly lucky \u2018galactic line-up\u2019 \u2013 a chance alignment of multiple galaxies across a line-of-sight spanning most of the observable universe,\u201d said&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.lbl.gov\/19932-david-schlegel\"><u>David Schlegel<\/u><\/a>, a co-author of the study and a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.physics.lbl.gov\/\"><u>Physics Division<\/u><\/a>. &#8220;Finding one such alignment is a needle in the haystack. Finding all of these is like eight&nbsp;needles precisely lined up inside that haystack.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Carousel Lens is an alignment consisting of one&nbsp;foreground galaxy cluster (the \u2018lens\u2019) and seven&nbsp;background galaxies spanning immense cosmic distances and seen through the gravitationally distorted space-time around the lens. In the dramatic image below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The lensing cluster, located 5 billion light years away from Earth, is shown by its four brightest and most massive galaxies (indicated by La, Lb, Lc, and Ld), and these constitute the foreground of the image.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Seven unique galaxies (numbered 1 through 7), appear through the lens. These are located far beyond, at distances from 7.6 to 12 billion light years away from Earth, approaching the limit of the observable universe.<\/li>\n<li>Each galaxy\u2019s repeated appearances (indicated by each number\u2019s letter index, e.g., a through d) show differences in shape that are curved and stretched into multiple \u201cfun house mirror\u201d iterations caused by the warped space-time around the lens.<\/li>\n<li>Of particular interest is the discovery of an Einstein Cross&nbsp;\u2013 the largest known to date&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;shown in galaxy number 4\u2019s multiple appearances (indicated by 4<em>a<\/em>, 4<em>b<\/em>, 4<em>c<\/em>, and 4<em>d<\/em>). This rare configuration of multiple images around the center of the lens is an indication of the symmetrical distribution of the lens\u2019 mass (dominated by invisible dark matter) and plays a key role in the lens-modeling process.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure style=\"width: 1440px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/newscenter.lbl.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/full_width_desi_rgb_marked.jpg\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1440\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1440px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1440\/1440;\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hubble Space Telescope image of the Carousel Lens, taken in two 10-minute exposures, one using an optical filter and another using an infrared filter. The \u201cL\u201d indicators near the center (La, Lb, Lc, and Ld) show the most massive galaxies in the lensing cluster, located 5 billion light years away. Seven unique galaxies (numbered 1 through 7) \u2013 located an additional 2.6 to 7 billion light years beyond the lens \u2013 appear in multiple, distorted \u201cfun-house mirror\u201d iterations (indicated by each number\u2019s letter index, e.g., a through d), as seen through the lens. (Credit: Credit: William Sheu (UCLA) using Hubble Space Telescope data.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Light traveling from far-distant space can be magnified and curved as it passes through the gravitationally distorted space-time of nearer galaxies or clusters of galaxies. In rare instances, a configuration of objects aligns nearly perfectly to form a strong gravitational lens. Using an abundance of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/physicalsciences.lbl.gov\/2024\/04\/04\/first-results-from-desi-make-the-most-precise-measurement-of-our-expanding-universe\/\"><u>new data<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.desi.lbl.gov\/\"><u>Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.legacysurvey.org\/\"><u>Legacy Imaging Surveys<\/u><\/a>, recent observations from NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope, and the Perlmutter supercomputer at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nersc.gov\/\"><u>National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)<\/u><\/a>, the research team built on their earlier studies (in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newscenter.lbl.gov\/2020\/05\/14\/seeing-the-universe-through-new-lenses\/\"><u>May 2020<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newscenter.lbl.gov\/2021\/02\/02\/ai-finds-more-than-1200-gravitational-lensing-candidates\/\"><u>Feb 2021<\/u><\/a>) to identify likely strong lens candidates, laying the groundwork for the current discovery.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur team has been searching for strong lenses and modeling the most valuable systems,\u201d explains&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usfca.edu\/faculty\/xiaosheng-huang\"><u>Xiaosheng Huang<\/u><\/a>, a study co-author and member of Berkeley Lab\u2019s Supernova Cosmology Project, and a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of San Francisco. \u201cThe Carousel Lens is an incredible alignment of seven galaxies in five groupings that line up nearly perfectly behind the foreground cluster lens. As they appear through the lens, the multiple images of each of the background galaxies form approximately concentric circular patterns around the foreground lens, as in a carousel. It\u2019s an unprecedented discovery, and the computational model generated shows a highly promising prospect for measuring the properties of the cosmos, including those of dark matter and dark energy.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The study also involved several Berkeley Lab student researchers, including the lead author, William Sheu, an undergraduate student intern with DESI at the beginning of this study, now a PhD student at UCLA and a DESI collaborator.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Carousel Lens will enable researchers to study dark energy and dark matter in entirely new ways based on the strength of the observational data and its computational model.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an extremely unusual alignment, which by itself will provide a testbed for cosmological studies,\u201d observes&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.lbl.gov\/26272-nathalie-palanquedelabrouille\"><u>Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille<\/u><\/a>, director of Berkeley Lab\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.physics.lbl.gov\/\"><u>Physics Division<\/u><\/a>. \u201cIt also shows how the imaging done for DESI can be leveraged for other scientific applications,\u201d such as investigating the mysteries of dark matter and the accelerating expansion of the universe, which is driven by dark energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a rare and extraordinary discovery, researchers have identified a unique configuration of galaxies that form the most exquisitely aligned gravitational lens found to date. The&nbsp;Carousel Lens&nbsp;is a massive cluster-scale gravitational lens system that will enable researchers to delve deeper into the mysteries of the cosmos, including dark matter and dark energy. \u201cThis is an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":9364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/newscenter.lbl.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/full_width_desi_rgb_marked.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9365,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9363\/revisions\/9365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}