哈勃拍摄的“熔环”星系照片引发新的研究

The Hubble Space Telescope’s glamour shots of the universe nearly always have a discovery behind them.

哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的迷人的宇宙照片背后几乎都有一个发现。

In this image, a remote galaxy is greatly magnified and distorted by the effects of gravitationally warped space. After its public release, astronomers used the picture to measure the galaxy’s distance of 9.4 billion light-years. This places the galaxy at the peak epoch of star formation in cosmic evolution.

在这张图片中，一个遥远的星系被引力扭曲的空间所放大和扭曲。在公开发布之后，天文学家们利用这张图片测量出这个星系的距离地球94亿光年。这将该星系置于宇宙演化中恒星形成的高峰期。

In this particular snapshot, a science discovery followed the release of a Hubble observation of a striking example of a deep-space optical phenomenon dubbed an “Einstein ring.” The photo was released in December 2020 as an example of one of the largest, nearly complete Einstein rings ever seen.

在这张特殊的快照中，科学家发现了哈勃望远镜观测到的一个被称为“爱因斯坦环”的深空光学现象的惊人例子。张照片于2020年12月发布，是有史以来最大、几乎完整的爱因斯坦环之一。

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Jha; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz

图片来源：ESA/Hubble&NASA, S.Jha；致谢：L.Shatz