Look: Hubble captures rare Einstein Ring phenomenon

Einstein Was Right It’s all an illusion. by Jennifer Walter Updated: Feb. 20, 2024 Originally Published: Aug. 26, 2021 ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu

ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu Space has a knack for playing tricks on the eyes. Take this image for example — does the bright cluster in the center represent one galaxy, two, or perhaps a half dozen?

ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu; markup by Inverse If you guessed two galaxies, you’re right. Those are the dots in the center of the ring. But what are the other four bright spots of light circling around them?

ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu The ring’s four bright specks are nothing but reflected light. They’re visible thanks to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing .

This manifestation of gravitational lensing is known as an Einstein Ring. The phenomenon was first predicted by physicist Albert Einstein over a century ago. Heritage Images/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Jha Gravitational lensing happens when enormous, distant space objects cause spacetime to curve so that the light around them appears physically bent from our position on Earth.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Jha Einstein Rings are perhaps the clearest way to observe this phenomenon. They only occur when two objects are perfectly aligned — one behind the other, from our vantage point.

This is the full image of the most recent ring that Hubble imaged. It was released on August 9, 2021.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu

Shutterstock And there’s another piece to this visual trick: a massive quasar is nested in the very center of the ring, illuminating the entire cluster.

Quasars are extremely bright objects that sit in the center of some galaxies. They are the product of gas and dust falling into supermassive black holes, emitting electromagnetic radiation. ESA via Giphy

These pictures show other Einstein Rings that Hubble previously captured.

NASA, ESA, and the SLACS Survey team: A. Bolton (Harvard/ Smithsonian), S. Burles (MIT), L. Koopmans (Kapteyn), T. Treu (UCSB), and L. Moustakas (JPL/Caltech)

ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu There’s a lot more to those distant specks of light than what first meets the eye. And you can thank Einstein for the explanation.

Shutterstock Read more stories about space here.

Look: Hubble captures rare Einstein Ring phenomenon

This is the full image of the most recent ring that Hubble imaged. It was released on August 9, 2021.

These pictures show other Einstein Rings that Hubble previously captured.

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