11 billion year old ghost appears in stunning space-time bending photo

Using Einstein's theory of relativity to power the state-of-the-art ALMA telescope array in Chile to bend space-time, scientists have revealed an ancient and invisible object in the universe.

According to Live Science, it is an image of the world 11 billion years ago , capturing a galaxy that was young and invisible at all wavelengths. It is a literal ghost because in real time this galaxy could be very old or no longer exist.

To achieve this "time-traveling" moment , scientists used Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which shows that massive objects - such as galaxies or giant stars - can create a certain "curvature" of space-time thanks to a huge gravitational field .

Radio image of 'ghost' galaxy captured by a spectacular 'bending' of space-time - (Image: SISSA)

A team of scientists from Italy's International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) has exploited such a thing to act as a cosmic "magnifying glass" , an effect called "gravitational lensing" that would significantly boost the power of ALMA, already a powerful radio telescope array.

Thanks to this "bending" of spacetime, the precious image from ALMA has captured the faint outline of a galaxy that should be invisible.

At the moment of observation, this galaxy was very young and was forming 1,000 times more stars than our Milky Way galaxy today.

"Distant galaxies like this, called young, small, are characterized by vigorous star formation, are largely obscured by dust and contain a very rich reservoir of molecular gas, which is the precursor to the dormant massive galaxies we see in our closer cosmic region," said co-author astrophysicist Andrea Lapi from SISSA.

Galaxies like the newly recorded "ghost" also provide particularly valuable insights into the processes that led to the formation and evolution of structures in the universe today.