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Astronomers using the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a spectacular image of Abell 370, a galaxy of galaxies embedded among thousands of distant galaxies.
Abell 370, a massive galaxy located in the constellation of Cetus, about 4 billion light-years away, is the first target of the BUFFALO study, which aims to search for some of the first galaxies in the world. ;Universe. Image Credit: NASA / ESA / A. Koekemoer / M. Jauzac / C. Steinhardt / BUFFALO Team.
The huge mass of clusters of giant galaxies like Abell 370, mainly composed of mysterious dark matter, bends and magnifies the light of these distant objects, transforming these clusters into natural telescopes.
The mass of a cluster bends and magnifies the light from more distant objects behind it, uncovering objects too faint, even for Hubble's sensitive vision.
Using this cosmological trick – called a strong gravitational lens – Hubble is able to explore some of the oldest and furthest galaxies in the Universe.
The most amazing demonstration of the gravitational lens in Abell 370 can be seen just below the center of the cluster.
Nicknamed "The Dragon", this feature is a combination of five gravitational lens images of the same spiral galaxy beyond the group.
This image of Abell 370 and its surroundings was carried out as part of the new survey "Beyond Ultra-Deep Border Fields and Heritage Observations" (BUFFALO).
This project was designed to succeed the Frontier Fields project. 101 Hubble's orbits were devoted to the exploration of six galaxy clusters at Frontier Field. These additional observations focus on the regions surrounding clusters of galaxies, allowing for a larger field of view.
The main mission of BUFFALO however is to study how and when the most massive and luminous galaxies of the Universe were formed and how the formation of ancient galaxies is related to the assembly of dark matter.
This will allow astronomers to determine how quickly galaxies have formed in the 800 million years since the Big Bang.
Thanks to Frontier Fields observations, the BUFFALO survey will be able to detect the most distant galaxies 10 times more efficiently than its original program.
BUFFALO will also benefit from other space telescopes that have already observed the regions around clusters. These datasets will be included in the search for the first galaxies.
"By expanding the area we map around each of these groups, we will dramatically improve our estimate of cluster magnification, a mandatory step to study distant galaxies that BUFFALO will discover," said BUFFALO project leader Dr. Mathilde Jauzac. . astronomer at the Extragalactic Astronomy Center at the University of Durham, UK.
"In addition, BUFFALO will enable us to accurately map the distribution of dark matter in these massive clusters and to trace their evolutionary history, a missing piece of information in today's evolutionary theories."
"BUFFALO represents an incredible opportunity to understand how dark matter assembles, interacts and evolves in the most massive structures present in our universe."
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