Cosmology Views
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)
