Space Invaders

Hubble image of Abell 68The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies know as Abell 68 acts as a lens in space bending the light coming from very distant background galaxies. The lensing creates a funhouse mirror effect on the background galaxies. The foreground cluster is 2 billion light-years away, and the lensed galaxies are far behind it.

In this Hubble photo, a spiral galaxy at upper left has been stretched and mirrored into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the classic 1970s computer game Space Invaders!

Image Credit: NASA

Gravitational Lensing

A massive galaxy cluster in the center of this Hubble image is called SPT-CL J0019-2026. Some of the galaxies behind the cluster appear stretched into bright arcs by gravitational lensing. Such lensing occurs when a massive object like a galaxy cluster has a sufficiently powerful gravitational field to magnify and distort the light from background objects.

Video Credit: ESA

Seeing Quintuple

This Hubble image shows the light from a distant quasar being gravitationally lensed by a pair of closer galaxies. The quasar shows up in five places in the image. The four bright spots are obvious. The fifth is a dark spot near the center caused by an interference effect resulting from two galaxies bending the light.

Video Credit: ESA

Gravitational Lensing

Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant galaxy is bent by the gravitational pull of an intervening astronomical object. In this image assembled from multiple observations by the Hubble Space Telescope a relatively nearby galaxy cluster (MACSJ0138.0-2155) has lensed the galaxy (MRG-M0138) which is located 10 billion light-years from us.

Image Credit: NASA / ESA