SDSSCGB 8842.3

In the center of this image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, are two faint galaxies that seem to be smiling. You can make out two orange eyes and a white button nose. In the case of this “happy face,” the two eyes are the galaxies SDSSCGB 8842.3 and SDSSCGB 8842.4, and the misleading smile lines are actually arcs caused by an effect known as strong gravitational lensing. Massive structures in the universe — like galaxy clusters — exert such a powerful gravitational pull that they can warp the space around them and act as cosmic lenses that magnify, distort, and bend the light of objects behind them. In this instance of gravitational lensing, a ring — known as an Einstein Ring — is produced from this bending of light. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt. For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1506a/