Astronomers are over the Moon. The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope detected a rare halo of bright light. The glow surrounds a nearby galaxy, according to a report issued by the group on Monday.
The halo is called an “Einstein ring.” It encircles NGC 6505, a galaxy 590 million light-years away. By cosmic standards, that’s close. One light-year is farther than 5.8 trillion miles. For reference, the Sun is only 93 million miles away.
The name Einstein ring honors Albert Einstein. He first described how large objects can distort the space around themselves. In a process known as “gravitational lensing,” a galaxy (or other large mass) can magnify the light from galaxies behind it. The light bends in such a way as to perfectly encircle a closer object. The result is similar to peering through an enormous magnifying glass.
Using an Einstein ring, scientists can study details of places impossible to see even with modern telescopes.
Astronomers have known about NGC 6505 for more than a century. It is a well-known galaxy in the constellation Draco. However, the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics reports that the researchers were surprised when the telescope revealed the bright glowing ring.
The newfound halo comes from a much more distant galaxy. That galaxy is more than four billion light-years away. Conor O’Riordan of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics told CNN, “This galaxy in the foreground acts like a ‘lens,’ focusing the light from the background galaxy into a distorted but highly magnified ring-shaped image of the background galaxy.”
O’Riordan was lead author for the report about the Einstein ring. “All strong lenses are special, because they’re so rare, and they’re incredibly useful scientifically,” he wrote in a statement. “This one is particularly special, because it’s so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful.”
Euclid rocketed from Florida in 2023. NASA is taking part in its mission to detect dark energy and dark matter in the universe (types of matter and mass that scientists don’t yet know much about). In the next few years, Euclid will survey billions of galaxies. That could reveal more Einstein rings.
Space exploration is exciting and useful—perhaps especially for those who know its Creator and Builder, the One by whom all things exist.
All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. — Colossians 1:16-17
