An almost perfect Einstein ring has been created by two galaxies that have just emerged from a world 12 billion light-years away, thanks to a once-in-a-thousand-years coincidence.
According to Science Alert, the analysis of a new image from the data of NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a stunning picture, resembling a bright blue dot surrounded by a perfect ring of light.
“Einstein Ring” captured by James Webb – (Image: JWST/MAST; Spaceguy44/Reddit).
This phenomenon is known as the “Einstein ring,” which occurs only when two galaxies and Earth accidentally align perfectly, and the telescope on Earth also happens to fall into that line of sight.
This phenomenon occurred with the pair of objects that James Webb has just captured. The closer galaxy, an enormous galaxy, acted as a lens, magnifying the more distant galaxy behind it, while also creating a halo of light around the image of the galaxy in the background.
Original uncolored and unrefined image – (Image: JWST/MAST; Spaceguy44/Reddit)
A recently graduated astronomer, Spaceguy44, has colored and enhanced the image to help us see the objects more clearly, posting it on Reddit with an explanation that this phenomenon is similar to looking at a wine glass from above, vertically, and seeing the stem of the glass magnified.
According to NASA, this Einstein ring is named SPT-S J041839-4751.8, captured by the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) of James Webb, using three different filters.
Overview of the region of space where the two special galaxies reside – (Image: JWST/MAST; Spaceguy44/Reddit)
Due to this powerful telescope’s extremely distant and sharp view, the galaxies appear quite large in the images, but in reality, they are 12 billion light-years away from us.
Thus, these are two of the galaxies belonging to the dawn of the universe. Our universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.
The images captured by James Webb are not pictures of the present but rather images from billions of years ago, as it takes that long for light to reach Earth. Among them, the older galaxy is clearly visible due to the magnification effect from the galaxy in the middle, making it a significant astronomical treasure.
