Bibcode
Kelly, Patrick L.; Diego, Jose M.; Rodney, Steven; Kaiser, Nick; Broadhurst, Tom; Zitrin, Adi; Treu, Tommaso; Pérez-González, Pablo G.; Morishita, Takahiro; Jauzac, Mathilde; Selsing, Jonatan; Oguri, Masamune; Pueyo, Laurent; Ross, Timothy W.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Smith, Nathan; Hjorth, Jens; Cenko, S. Bradley; Wang, Xin; Howell, D. Andrew; Richard, Johan; Frye, Brenda L.; Jha, Saurabh W.; Foley, Ryan J.; Norman, Colin; Bradac, Marusa; Zheng, Weikang; Brammer, Gabriel; Benito, Alberto Molino; Cava, Antonio; Christensen, Lise; de Mink, Selma E.; Graur, Or; Grillo, Claudio; Kawamata, Ryota; Kneib, Jean-Paul; Matheson, Thomas; McCully, Curtis; Nonino, Mario; Pérez-Fournon, I.; Riess, Adam G.; Rosati, Piero; Schmidt, Kasper Borello; Sharon, Keren; Weiner, Benjamin J.
Bibliographical reference
Nature Astronomy, Volume 2, p. 334-342
Advertised on:
4
2018
Citations
145
Refereed citations
115
Description
Galaxy-cluster gravitational lenses can magnify background galaxies by a
total factor of up to 50. Here we report an image of an individual star
at redshift z = 1.49 (dubbed MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1) magnified by more
than ×2,000. A separate image, detected briefly 0.26″ from
Lensed Star 1, is probably a counterimage of the first star demagnified
for multiple years by an object of ≳3 solar masses in the cluster.
For reasonable assumptions about the lensing system, microlensing
fluctuations in the stars' light curves can yield evidence about the
mass function of intracluster stars and compact objects, including
binary fractions and specific stellar evolution and supernova models.
Dark-matter subhaloes or massive compact objects may help to account for
the two images' long-term brightness ratio.
Related projects
Formation and Evolution of Galaxies: Observations in Infrared and other Wavelengths
This IAC research group carries out several extragalactic projects in different spectral ranges, using space as well as ground-based telescopes, to study the cosmological evolution of galaxies and the origin of nuclear activity in active galaxies. The group is a member of the international consortium which built the SPIRE instrument for the
Ismael
Pérez Fournon