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New gravitationally lensed galaxies found

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Astronomers using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have identified 19 new "gravitationally lensed" galaxies.

Included are eight new so-called "Einstein rings," which are considered the most elegant manifestation of the lensing phenomenon. Only three such rings had previously been seen in visible light.

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In gravitational lensing, light from distant galaxies is deflected on its way to Earth by the gravitational field of any massive object in its way, astronomers explained. Because of light bending, we see the galaxy distorted into an arc or multiple separate images. When both galaxies are exactly lined up, the light forms a bull's-eye pattern, called an Einstein ring, around the foreground galaxy.

Gravitational lensing gives astronomers the most direct probe of the distribution of dark matter in elliptical galaxies. Dark matter is an invisible and exotic form of matter that has not yet been directly observed. By searching for dark matter, astronomers hope to gain insight into galaxy formation.

The new lenses were discovered by a team of astronomers led by Adam Bolton of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., and Leon Koopmans of the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in the Netherlands.

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