FOR RELEASE: 6:00 am (EDT) May 23, 2006

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC06-23

HUBBLE CAPTURES A "FIVE-STAR” RATED GRAVITATIONAL LENS

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever picture of a
group of five star-like images of a single distant quasar. The
multiple-image effect seen in the Hubble picture is produced by a
process called gravitational lensing, in which the gravitational field
of a massive object -- in this case, a cluster of galaxies -- bends and
amplifies light from an object -- in this case, a quasar -- farther
behind it.

Credit: ESA, NASA, K. Sharon (Tel Aviv University) and E. Ofek (Caltech)

To see and read more about this research on the Web, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2006/23

http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0606.html

For more information, contact:

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
(Phone: 410-338-4514; E-mail: villard@stsci.edu)

Lars Lindberg Christensen
Hubble/ESA, Garching, Germany
(Phone: 011-49-89-3200-6306; Cell: 011-49-173-3872-621;
E-mail: lars@eso.org)

Dan Maoz
Tel Aviv University, Israel
(Phone: 011-972-3-640-8538; E-mail: maoz@wise.tau.ac.il)

Keren Sharon
Tel Aviv University, Israel
(Phone: 011-972-3-640-5121; E-mail: kerens@wise.tau.ac.il)

The Space Telescope is an international cooperative project between NASA
and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute is
operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in
Astronomy, Inc., Washington.