Put on a happy face 😊
While observing the universe, NASAHubble caught a galaxy cluster smiling for the camera. The cheerful cluster has two orange eyes made of bright galaxies, a white button nose, and smile lines, which are actually arcs caused by an effect known as strong gravitational lensing.
Galaxy clusters are the most massive structures in the universe and have such a powerful gravitational pull that they warp spacetime around them and act as cosmic lenses. They can magnify, distort, and bend the light behind them! In this special case of gravitational lensing, a ring — known as an Einstein ring — is produced from this bending of light.
Image description: In the middle of the darkness of space, a galaxy cluster looks like a smiling face. Two bright orange galaxies make the eyes, while a white galaxy makes a small nose, and arcs caused by gravitational lensing make the smile and border of the face. Other orange and white galaxies are sprinkled around the area, as wel...
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