Scientists pinpoint age of 'molten ring' in stunning Hubble telescope image - Space.com

New science from a stunning 2020 Hubble image illuminates the back story behind a shining loop of light.

The circle, also called an Einstein ring after the famous physicist who predicted its existence, came about due to a galactic-scale illusion.

As scientists affiliated with the Hubble Space Telescope wrote in a statement, the big ring is actually a light smear created by a lensing effect that occurs when a foreground object with strong gravity magnifies the light of a more distant galaxy behind it.

Related: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time.

student at the Max Plank Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany and a member of the investigation team, said in a statement released by the European Space Agency, which partners with NASA on the Hubble project.

The magnified image of the galaxy gives astronomers a close-up glimpse into the distant past," according to the Hubble statement.

After the photo's publication, astronomers dug up archival data gathered by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to calculate the galaxy's distance at 9.4 billion light-years.

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