Unprecedented phenomenon helps space monster clone 6 times

This is the first time scientists have observed a mysterious phenomenon called "Einstein zig-zag".

Data from the world's most powerful James Webb space telescope has revealed a strange phenomenon that causes light from a cosmic monster to pass through two different warped regions of space-time and duplicate itself six times before the eyes of Earthlings.

This interesting phenomenon is called "Einstein zig-zag" , a hypothesis described by the scientist Albert Einstein many years ago. This is the first time humanity has observed it in reality.

The six strange images are all replicas of a single hidden quasar, created by a unique phenomenon - (Image: NASA/ESA/CSA/Frédéric Dux).

According to Live Science, what this strange phenomenon replicated is a quasar billions of light years away from Earth called J1721+8842.

Quasars are essentially hungry monster black holes that devour matter so fiercely that they glow brightly in space, appearing from a distance as stars.

In 2018, astronomers discovered four identical points of light billions of light years from Earth and suggested it was a duplication phenomenon caused by ordinary gravitational lensing.

Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant object appears to bend as it passes through a region of space-time warped by the immense gravity of an object closer to us.

Gravitational lensing can be thought of as acting like a faulty magnifying glass, magnifying the image but sometimes also distorting it.

By 2022, researchers discovered that J1721+8842 had two additional bright spots in addition to the original quartet, as well as a faint red Einstein ring.

The newly discovered spots are slightly fainter than the other four, leading them to suspect that they are the result of a pair of quasars multiplied by six.

However, in the new study, the team led by Associate Professor Frédéric Dux from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) discovered that all these bright spots come from a single quasar.

They also found that the new bright spots converged around a second large lensing object farther away from the first, which is also responsible for the faint Einstein ring seen in more recent images.

After observing the light curves of each bright spot for two years, the researchers showed that there was a slight delay in the time it took for the two faintest duplicate images to reach us.

This suggests that the light in these copies must have traveled farther than the other four points of light, possibly because the light in these images passes through opposite edges of each lens object.

The team dubbed this extremely rare cosmic configuration an "Einstein zig-zag" because light from some of the doubly lensed points of light moved back and forth as it passed through both lensing objects - two giant galaxies.

The discovery helps address an earlier concern, when some astronomical observations suggested that different parts of the universe were expanding at different rates, threatening to shatter the foundations of understanding cosmology.

However, the researchers believe the newly confirmed phenomenon will finally help them find the definitive answer. This unique configuration will allow astronomers to precisely measure both the Hubble constant – which reflects the rate at which the universe is expanding – as well as the amount of dark energy.