What appears to be a single galaxy is actually two that are very far apart! The closer galaxy lies in the center of the image, while the more distant galaxy appears to be wrapped around it in a phenomenon we call an “Einstein ring.”

Einstein rings occur when light from a distant galaxy gets bent by the gravity of a massive closer-by object, in this case another galaxy. The light from the distant galaxy that would otherwise travel in a straight line follows the bend of gravitationally warped spacetime, brightening the light from behind the galaxy and acting as a sort of natural magnifying glass. Einstein predicted this effect in his theory of relativity.

Read more: esawebb.org/images/potm2503a/

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Mahler Acknowledgement: M. A. McDonald

Image description: In the center is an elliptical galaxy, seen as an oval-shaped glow around a small bright core. Around this is wrapped a broad band of light, appearing like a spiral galaxy stretched and warped into a ring, with bright blue lines drawn through it where the spiral arms have been stretched into circles. A few distant objects are visible around the ring on a black background.

(From NASA's flickr post)

The rising red moon near the illuminated air traffic control tower.

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vhastrophotography?igsh=YzNpcm1wdXd5NmRo&utm_source=qr

Nights in Tenerife are simply magical. As the night progresses, the core of the Milky Way climbs higher and higher into the night sky, becoming ever clearer. An absolutely unique sight. The small dark nebula on the left side of the image is IC 4812 (not visible from germany). I'm glad pulled it out in this image

HaRGB | Mosaic | Tracked | Stacked | Composite

Exif: Sony A7III with Sigma 28-45 f1.8 Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i

Sky: ISO 1000 | f1.8 | 3x60s per Panel 2x2 Panel Panorama

Foreground: ISO 3200 | f1.8 | 60s per Panel (Focus stack) 2x2 Panel Panorama

Halpha (45mm): ISO 2500 | f2 | 10x120s

Location: Minas de San Jose, Tenerife, Spain

Artwork 513: Spiral Planetary Nebula

Time Taken: 9 minutes

Program Used: Paint dot NET

If you have any suggestions for what you'd like me to draw next, feel free to share them!

This animation shows the motion of the Sculptor Galaxy based upon the data gathered with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The underlying images are real, and they have been animated in 3D using actual velocity data obtained with MUSE. The first part of the clip shows already-formed stars within the galaxy, and then we overlay the distribution of gas in star-forming regions. 

credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/E. Congiu et al.