Extremely rare "Einstein ring" spotted near Earth

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid Space Telescope has discovered an extremely rare Einstein ring near Earth. Light rings occur when two galaxies are almost perfectly aligned, one behind the other.

This bright ring is one of the best examples of gravitational lensing, a phenomenon that Albert Einstein predicted in 1915. In addition to contemplating aesthetic appeal, it allowed researchers to "weigh" dark matter in the center of the galaxy, which is almost 600 million light-years away, Space.com writes.

The European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft was launched in July 2023. And it's stunning that Euclid spotted its first strong gravitational lens as it began to build the most accurate 3D map of the universe ever created, scientists say.

According to experts, the map delves into 10 billion years of cosmic history, helping scientists explore the mysteries of the dark universe: dark matter and dark energy. That's why Euclid has been nicknamed the "dark universe detective".

Einstein's ring, which was spotted by the ESA telescope, is located in the galaxy NGC 6505, which is located at a distance of 590 million light years from Earth, which is considered close by cosmic standards, PopularScience writes.

Interestingly, the light that forms Einstein's perfect ring that Euclid captured comes from a much more distant galaxy. This unknown distant background galaxy is about 4.42 billion light-years away, and its light is distorted by gravity as it travels, experts say.

The research team named it the "Altieri lens" in honor of its discoverer, astronomer Bruno Altieri.

"The formation of complete Einstein rings like NGC 6505 is a very rare event because it requires the lens galaxy and the source galaxy to be perfectly aligned with our telescope," said Massimo Meneghetti, a team member and researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics.

OBOZ.UA previously wrote that the Hubble telescope had detected a ring-shaped galaxy.

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