Einstein Ring Around
Forged by the chance alignment of two distant galaxies, this striking ring-like structure is a rare and peculiar manifestation of gravitational lensing as predicted by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity. In this particular case, the galaxy known as (its formal name is HATLAS +003906) and an intervening galaxy line up so that the light from the more distant one forms a ring as seen from Earth. Discovered by the Herschel Space Observatory, is an active star-forming galaxy nearly 12 billion light-years away, seen at a time when the Universe was only 15 percent of its current age. Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive galaxy or cluster of galaxies bends the light emitted from a more distant galaxy, forming a highly magnified, though much distorted image. Detailed analysis of gravitational lens distortions indicate that a small dark satellite galaxy participates in the deflections, bolstering indication that many satellite galaxies are quite dim and dominated by dark matter. One such galaxy is seen here as a small white dot on the left in the image.
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Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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