ESA's Euclid telescope, launched in July 2023 to explore the dark universe, has made a remarkable discovery during its early testing phase. While analyzing images sent back to Earth, scientists detected a stunning Einstein ring surrounding the center of the galaxy NGC 6505, located approximately 590 million light-years away.
This rare phenomenon, predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, occurs when a massive object, like a galaxy, acts as a gravitational lens, bending and magnifying the light from a distant galaxy behind it. The almost perfect alignment of NGC 6505 and the background galaxy has created a spectacular ring of light.
The ring is composed of light from a distant galaxy, located 4.42 billion light-years away, which has been distorted by the gravity of NGC 6505. This background galaxy is previously unobserved and remains unnamed.
The discovery highlights the power of Euclid's high-resolution instruments and its ability to detect even subtle gravitational lensing effects. This find is particularly significant because the Einstein ring is relatively close to Earth and its alignment makes it exceptionally beautiful.
Scientists are excited about the potential of studying this Einstein ring to gain insights into the expansion of the universe, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and the properties of the distant galaxy whose light is being bent.
Euclid's primary mission is to map the universe in 3D, searching for the subtle effects of weak gravitational lensing. The telescope has already begun its detailed survey of the sky, and this early discovery suggests it is well on its way to uncovering many more hidden secrets of the cosmos.