Einstein's general theory of relativity (GTR) has been a revolutionizing contribution in the field of physics, and so has been its applications and findings, like the famous gravitational waves discovery from 2015. Gravitational lensing is one such phenomena which can be explained by GTR. Gravitational lensing is defined as a phenomena in which the light coming from a distant galaxy, present in the background of a very massive object (for eg another galaxy ) comparatively near to the Earth is bent due to the curvature produced in space time fabric by this very massive object. Due to which the image of the more distant galaxy appears round and stretched, which it isn't the reality. It is just due to the bending of space time fabric.
Taqwa Space Observatory is proud to share that One of our team members, M. Shaheer Niazi has captured a gravitational lensing object by using the equipment housed in Taqwa. We feel proud to share that this is the first time that such object has been captured from Pakistan. Such kind of objects are usually captured by Space Telescopes like Hubble or large Earth based
Telescopes but it is truly a delight to share the results of our recent achievement.
About the object: This object, named SDSS J103842.59+484917.7, or the Cheshire cat group is a distant gravitational lens which measures only 23 arc seconds in the night sky! In comparison, the moon measure 1,870 arc seconds or half a degree in the sky.
The lensed galaxies in the group have red shifts of z>2 which puts them at a distance of more than 10 billion light years away! I have included an annotated image with the details of the arcs. A comparison with HST's image is also given along with the full FOV(field of view) image from which the Cheshire cat was cropped, in the full fov there are more galaxies than stars.
Instrument Details: Telescope: Meade 16" lx200 Mount: ASA-DDM85-A FLI ML29052 Integration Time:
17.7 hours integration
