September 24, 2021

The Molten Ring seen by Hubble (Image Anastasio Díaz-Sánchez (Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena))

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on the Einstein ring nicknamed the Molten Ring for its “liquid” appearance and because it was identified in the constellation of the Furnace. A team of researchers used observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope and the FORS 2 instrument on the VLT in Chile of the object formally classified as GAL-CLUS-022058s to study its physical characteristics. The ring is actually a galaxy whose light has been distorted by a gravitational lens and, according to the study’s conclusions, is about 9.4 billion light-years away from Earth.