Cosmology Views

Collection of Rings and Distortions, With Images

Most galactic rings are dismissed as an illusion, a result of a suspicious mechanism called a gravitational lens. This lens is a source of gravity claimed to bend the light of a more distant object to appear as a distortion like an arc or circle or to appear in a location where it should not be.

Following is a collection of these distortions with images. Many are claimed to be the result of a gravitational lens.

Each distortion has a link to a description and a link to its image (if available separate from the description). I hope the links remain intact.
To bring all these images into one topic would be a very large page on a  display screen.
This way you choose the topic or just the image.

These are in no particular order.

Hoag's Object is a known ring galaxy.

from Wikipedia:

'
In the initial announcement of his discovery, Hoag proposed the hypothesis that the visible ring was a product of gravitational lensing. This idea was later discarded because the nucleus and the ring have the same redshift, and because more advanced telescopes revealed the knotty structure of the ring, something that would not be visible if the ring were the product of gravitational lensing.
'
link


image

The criteria about knots is not applied consistently because many other rings show knots but are still claimed to be a distortion by a lens.

Here are other ring galaxies

Cartwheel Galaxy
Impressive ring with large radius, with faint spokes

link


image


Cartwheel galaxy was the subject of a post to FB.

Here is another ring galaxy


AM 0644-741 or Lindsay-Shapley Ring
It looks like Hoag's Object but the core is left of center

link

link2 - has X-ray and optical images



image


<next one added 08/06/2019>

M94 - has an inner ring and an outer ring of stars

link




image



SN1987A - ring with nodes in Chandra image

link


image1 - distant view with a fainter outer ring



image2 - zoomed



Here are rings and arcs claimed to be distortions.
They are in no particular order.

Einstein Cross or  QSO 2237+0305 - four nodes around a central node; claimed to be four lensed images of one quasar, the one in the middle.

The simpler explanation is five quasars in close proximity with a possible coarse alignment. Halton Arp observed quasars with the same red shift  in pairs.


link


image


RXJ1131-1231 - more complex Hoag's object

link1


link2

link3

image

SDSS J0146-0929 - multiple arcs as parts of a circle

link with image


antennae galaxies - a distant view shows two arcs

link


image1


image2


Abell 2261 - arc at 9 o'clock; some documents mention knots in Abell 2261.

link



image



Abell 383 - long arc at 4 o'clock ending with a knot; beyond that at 5 o'clock is elliptical with distorted circle.

link


image


Abell S1063 - several arcs around the elliptical

link


image

Abell 1413 - arc at 10 o'clock

link


image


Abell 2218 - multiple arcs around the large elliptical at left; filaments around elliptical near top right

link


image



Abell 1689 - faint arcs at 2 and 4 o'clock

link


image

Abell 2261 - arc at 9 o'clock from large elliptical

link


image



Abell 2390 - in X-ray both images show arcs

link


image



Abell 2667 large arc to left of large elliptical, the bottom of the arc has a knot

link


image

Abell 1835 could have a jet at 1 o'clock to the very bright central object

link


image

Abell 370 - large arc at 2 o'clock to central elliptical; the bottom of the arc has a knot

link


image


 SDSS J1004+4112  - the central bright object is claimed to be a lensed quasar (which don’t have jets) but it looks like an elliptical with a long jet at about 10 o'clock; there is an arc with knots at 4 o'clock with another small arc above it;  there is also an arc at 2 o'clock that crosses a distant galaxy - quite the coincidence!
When zooming into an image there is another  elliptical some distance away from the main one at about 9 o'clock. Oddly this one has an arc with knots at 10 o'clock. Near the right edge is either: two galaxies are merging or one is splitting. Below that is two spirals with long tails. This is a very interesting cluster.

link with image annotated

link 2

image





image2

 SDP.81 - almost a complete circle with a knot inside the circle

link

 image

LRG 3-757 - the horse shoe Einstein ring

link


image

 RCS2 032727-132623 - a very large arc around the central elliptical; odd filaments at 4 and 12 o'clock.

link

image in link

The Twin Quasar - adjacent identical quasars are not allowed so they must be an illusion; there are 2 adjacent bright objects in the image; the right one in the pair might have a ring; at about 2 o’clock from the quasar pair at some distance is a reddish ring galaxy.

link


image

Abell 1185 - in APOD image: at the left is an elliptical with a very long jet with 2 disorganized nodes; this image is here for that interesting jet, not as a lens.

link

link to APOD topic with image


Abell 2744 wikipedia has a terrible image with false reds and blues; zoom into the image below; the lower elliptical to the right of a bright spiral has long jets at 2 and 6 o'clock; there is a distant filament at 4 o'clock; the elliptical at 10 o'clock to the one noticeable bright yellow star has filaments at 5 and 10 o'clock

link

image

Abell 2261 - arc at 9 o'clock to the BCG

link


image

El Gordo - filament at about 1 o'clock

link


image


J1531+3414 - cluster with much of interest
double ellipticals at center of very large diameter ring
right one has jet at 2 o'clock but jet is a string of pearls

link1



link2 -with inset of jet or a string of pearls


link3 - zoomed to show more details


image


ZwCl0024+1652 (CL0024+17 for short) is a galaxy cluster with a ghostly ring of dark matter
Some images show a wide diffuse ring around the  ellipticals at center

link1



link2 -with image having the overlay of the dark matter map



image without the blue overlay, showing many arcs around the central ellipticals

image2 with the blue overlay


PLCK_G308.3-20.2 - called a colossal cluster

link

image

SPT 0615- farthest galaxy ever imaged by means of a lens
the image does not show a large galaxy to serve as claimed a lens
nor does it identify the distorted galaxy.

From the link: 'the galaxy is located towards the upper left, to the right of the group of two stars and one galaxy'

A spiral galaxy is to the far left of the very bright foreground star, above 2 foreground stars. This is not the upper left.

In this image the claimed distant galaxy must be too dim to see. Also in the upper left there are no large galaxies to serve as the lens.
I can only assume this happened here: The observed brightness (though dim) is too bright for its extreme distance calculated by red shft so a lens is the explanation for the anomaly.

link

image


SDSS J103842.59+484917.7 - Cheshire Cat

link to story with images in different wavelengths


image


Summary:

Many of these distant cluster appear to exhibit much electrical activity as arcs. Perhaps others will find even more features than the obvious ones after zooming.

I assume the fine rings and arcs are part of a circular plasma filament around a large elliptical galaxy where the visible portion is in arc mode and the rest is in dark mode.

There must be more of these 'distortions' than I could find.
 
Last updated (10/02/2019)