Galaxy Zoo Talk

Lensed stars from a background galaxy

  • Mjtbarrett by Mjtbarrett

    Hi ElisabethB,
    If you've made it this far, thanks. 😃
    Here goes with an attempt to explain the post about lensed stars...
    Our galaxy has stars which, by line of sight, show up in the foreground and appear in the images of galaxies farther away. They are bright and often splendidly coloured. I count these as foreground stars which sometimes overlap, or even appear to be, a galactic bulge. But they're foreground stars. As we look deeper into the cosmos using SDSS images, we see other galaxies. Let these be "middle ground" galaxies for the sake of argument. Hubble looks deeper still at " background" galaxies. In the Hubble images we sometimes see what appear to be "Hubble stars."
    Suppose then, that the light from Hubble stars travels towards the SDSS telescopes and encounters a black hole, or super massive galaxy? Or a series of such objects so that the light bends in different directions? The light from the Hubble star(s) may then be eventually bent towards the SDSS telescope and appear as either an Einstein ring (if seen head on) or as an Einstein cross if seen at an oblique angle. In some cases there may just be multiple images of the same one or two stars?
    Is it possible therefore that the pattern seen in this image may conceivably have been caused in such a manner?
    I don't know! But being a newbie I thought that it was reasonably plausible. Hence the post 😃
    I claim newbie rights to make wild speculation until I learn better 😉 I suspect that my little post will be blithely ignored by everyone who does know better anyway. If any other newbie sees it and gets interested, maybe they'll get interested in micro, meso and " proper gravitational lensing effects and have fun learning about them.... Hope this explains my persistent suggestions of lensing.
    Thanks for all the help and encouragement. I really appreciate it.

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    There is just one thing : the "Hubble" stars are also foreground stars from our galaxy. At these distances we cannot see individual stars in galaxies (unless they're supernovae).
    All the individual stars in these images (SDSS and Hubble) are stars from our galaxy.

    Posted

  • Mjtbarrett by Mjtbarrett

    Ah.

    Well it was nice whilst it lasted....
    Thanks very much 😃 ...For your patience as much as anything else!

    Posted