Conversation

Look, the Very Large #Telescope has imaged a cosmic #flower! 🌼 The blue "petals" are actually multiple images of the same object, a distant #galaxy seen when the #universe was only 20% of its current age. Light rays from this faraway galaxy were bent by the gravity of a foreground galaxy (the orange one at the centre) creating separate images of the distant source – a so-called Einstein Cross.

➡️ https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2337a/

📷 ESO/A. Cikota et al.

#astrodon #astronomy #space