Science

February 10, 2025
Ariel Marcy


A serendipitous image taken by the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope allowed astronomers to spot a stunning new example of an Einstein ring.

This extremely rare phenomenon occurs when a large space object acts like a lens and magnifies light from another object directly behind it. This was first predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which describes how the gravity of large objects, like galaxies, warp the spacetime fabric and alter the path of light.

If the alignment between telescope, foreground object and background object is just right, the magnified light makes a ring.

An Einstein ring can help astronomers test hypotheses about the expansion of the universe as well as the nature of dark matter and dark energy. However, less than 1,000 such “strong lenses” are known, and this new example is remarkably close to Earth.

More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrophysics/astronomers-find-einstein-ring-near-earth/