Object 19.5 billion light years away 'travels through space' to Earth

In an extremely rare moment, the ancient object transformed into an "Einstein ring", appearing to Earthlings through a chaotically warped region of space-time.

In a photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that NASA has just released, a strange cluster of objects consisting of a bright dot surrounded by a red ring is observed in the middle of the constellation Cetus .

The cluster includes one of the most distant objects ever seen by human eyes .

Strange cluster of objects in the constellation Cetus - (Photo: NASA).

According to scientists operating the Hubble mission, the most notable object in that strange cluster of images is a galaxy 19.5 billion light years away from Earth, called HerS J020941.1+001557.

Hubble should not have been able to see this distant object, but it "traveled through space" thanks to "gravitational lenses" , which are foreground cosmic objects with great gravitational force, forming a magnifying glass suspended between Hubble and the ancient object.

The age of this galaxy is unknown, but it is also one of the objects from the dawn of the universe. It used to be closer to Earth, but has "run away" as the universe continues to expand.

In the Hubble image, light from the object is distorted into a crescent shape, creating a rare "Einstein ring " in the sky.

According to Sci-News, Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent toward an intermediate, massive object. In this case, it's both of the other galaxies in the strange image.

First up is SDSS J020941.27+001558.4 , a galaxy about 2.7 billion light-years away, which is the largest bright spot in the cluster.

Meanwhile, the remaining bright dot above it — which appears to intersect the crescent curve of light — is SDSS J020941.23+001600.7 , another closer galaxy.

These two galaxies closer to Earth are the so-called "gravitational lenses" .

The galaxy 19.5 billion light-years away likely has a normal shape, a spiral disk of light like other galaxies, but its light has been intricately transformed as it passes through space-time chaotically warped by the two foreground galaxies.

However, this warping of space-time also helps light "travel through space" spectacularly. Distant galaxies are magnified, and light takes a "shortcut" to reach Earth's telescopes.

Finally, a community science project involving many members of the public - SPACE WARPS - helped identify this spectacular cluster of objects among Hubble's vast data archive.