HubVis: Software for gravitational lens estimation and visualization from Hubble data

The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) image spans less than one millionth of the sky, but it contains as many as 10,000 galaxies at distances on the order of 13 billion light years. However, Hubble images are difficult to process and require merging of multiple images from different optical wavelengths. In addition, the interpretation of such images can be complicated by intervening distortion caused by gravitational lensing. To address these issues, a NetBeans visualization tool called HubVis is being developed that includes the capability to: 1) simulate simple gravitational lensing and 2) search for gravitational lenses in Hubble data. The search method utilizes a novel algorithm to estimate gravitational lenses in Hubble data. Results are presented illustrating the current capabilities of the tool.