From The European Southern Observatory
The galaxy cluster 1ES 0657-55 is located in the southern constellation Carina (The Keel), south of the Milky Way band. Its redshift has been measured as z = 0.29. It is a source of strong and very hot X-ray emission and has an asymmetric galaxy distribution, indicating a large mass and recent formation. Images obtained with the ESO 3.6-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla have revealed the presence of an arc, i.e. presumably a background galaxy at larger distance, whose image is strongly distorted by the gravitational field of this cluster.
This is a color composite image of the galaxy cluster 1ES 0657-558, based on data taken in the B (blue; exposure 900 sec), g (green; 600 sec), R (red; 500 sec) and I (near-infrared; 600 sec) filters. A few of the brighter stars in the field saturated the CCD during the exposure; their images have been cleaned in this reproduction. North is up and East is left.
Based on press release with ESO PR Photo 16a/99
Catalog #: Photo 16a/99
Target Name: TA VLT Spectrum of a Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy An Arc at z = 3.23 in Galaxy Cluster 1ES 0657-55
Last Modified On: Sunday, December 17, 2000