The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of the ACO S520 galaxy cluster, which contains some interesting astronomical findings, including a ring galaxy and a pair of bright stars. Astronomers hope to use these observations to further study the distribution of dark matter and detect distant objects using gravitational lensing.

This image, taken by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, is full of interesting astronomical findings. In addition to several large elliptical galaxies, a ring-shaped galaxy lurks to the right of this image. Also visible on the left of this image is a pair of bright stars, notable for their colorful cross-diffraction flares. This collection of astronomical curiosities is the ACO S520 galaxy cluster in the constellation Pictor as imaged by the Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys.

This is one of a series of Hubble telescope observations aimed at finding large, bright clusters of galaxies that have not been captured in previous studies. The title of the time-tracking suggestion is aptly Almost Gone! Astronomers took advantage of the occasional gaps in Hubble’s busy schedule to image these barely discovered galaxy clusters, which reveal many interesting targets for further study with Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

Galaxy clusters are among the largest known objects in the universe, and studying these objects can provide insight into the distribution of dark matter, which is responsible for most of the galaxy cluster’s mass. The sheer mass of galaxy clusters is why many of them act as gravitational lenses, distorting and magnifying light from even more distant objects. This could allow astronomers to use galaxy clusters as a kind of natural gravitational telescope to detect distant objects that are normally too faint to detect, even for Hubble’s crystal-clear vision.