'Rare Einstein Ring captured': James Webb just unlocked a secret of the early universe
Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
Cosmic Illusion
JWST captured a nearly perfect Einstein ring—an ultra-rare gravitational lens that bends starlight into a glowing cosmic circle.
Light Twisted
This illusion occurs when a massive foreground galaxy warps space, bending light from a more distant galaxy into a ring.
Gravity Lens
It’s a real-life echo of Einstein’s 1915 theory—space isn’t just a backdrop, it warps under weight, twisting light like liquid.
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Perfect Alignment
Such rings form only when Earth, the massive lensing galaxy, and the distant source galaxy line up almost exactly.
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Cluster Focus
The ring wraps around an elliptical galaxy in cluster SMACSJ0028.2-7537, located in the Hydrus constellation.
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Infrared Vision
Captured by JWST’s NIRCam, the image also combines Hubble data, revealing gas trails and star clusters inside the distorted galaxy.
Time Machine
The lens acts as a cosmic magnifier, allowing us to see galaxies that formed not long after the Big Bang—otherwise invisible to telescopes.
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Dark Matter Map
By studying how light is bent, scientists can trace the invisible mass—dark matter—that shapes the universe’s hidden skeleton.
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Natural Lab
Einstein rings aren’t just beautiful—they’re deep-space labs helping astronomers study black holes, dark matter, and the fabric of spacetime itself.