Rare view of Einstein ring discovered An Einstein ring, one of the rarest phenomena in our skies, was just discovered by astronomers at the European Space Agency. The perfect ring of light encircles the galaxy NGC 6505 in an effect known as “gravitational lensing.” NGC 6505 is some 590 million light years away, but the light is actually coming from a distant unnamed galaxy some 4.4 billion light-years away. Gravitational lensing occurs when mass is so large, like a galaxy, spacetime curves around it distorting and magnifying the light from that distant galaxy. It’s kind of like when you drop a bowling ball on stretched out fabric. When the galaxy emitting light is in the same line of sight as another massive object like NGC 6505, it creates a bending effect and, in this case, forms a perfect ring.
#spacetiktok #europeanspaceagency #ngc6505 #galaxy #einstein #alberteinstein #gravitation #space #spacetok #spacediscovery