A ring for Einstein

[ToSeek]

Near Perfect "Einstein Ring" Discovered

Gravitational lensing happens when the gravity of a relatively close galaxy acts as a telescope lens to focus the light from a more distant galaxy. It allows astronomers to see distant objects they could never have a hope of observing with current instruments, essentially looking back to moments after the Big Bang (cosmically speaking). The galaxies are never perfectly lined up, though, and the "natural telescope" is a bit blurry. But now astronomer Remi Cabanac has found one of the most complete lenses ever discovered: a near perfect Einstein Ring, magnifying a distant galaxy with incredible clarity.

[Sam5]

For some reason the brightness of many pictures on the internet is too low for my monitor screen, so I copied this one to disk and brightened it up and lowered the contrast, and nearly the full ring can be seen in the photo.

[Normandy6644]

Wow, that's really cool!