James Webb Telescope Captures Stunning Einstein Ring: A Cosmic Illusion of Two Galaxies Aligned

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), in collaboration with NASA, ESA, and CSA, has captured an image of an Einstein ring, a rare cosmic phenomenon. What appears as a single, oddly shaped galaxy is, in fact, two galaxies separated by a vast distance. A closer foreground galaxy sits at the image's center, with a more distant background galaxy seemingly wrapped around it, forming a ring. Einstein rings occur when light from a distant object is bent around a massive intermediate object due to the curvature of spacetime. When the alignment is perfect, a full or partial circle of light appears around the lensing object. The lensing galaxy at the center is an elliptical galaxy within the galaxy cluster SMACSJ0028.2-7537, while the lensed galaxy is a spiral galaxy. The data were taken as part of the Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey, tracing 8 billion years of galaxy cluster evolution. This image also incorporates data from the Hubble Space Telescope.