Biggest Illusion?
An Optical Distortion of Cosmic Proportions

A gigantic distortion illusion named FORJ0332-3557 has been discovered in the area of the constellation Fornax (the Furnace). The object lies at a distance of 8 billion light-years and measures a whopping 40,000 light-years across.

Large photo shown on the left is the region where the new artifact is located. Arrow points to the fuzzy red object now known officially as FORJ0332-3557. A faint crescent shape can be seen near the top of the object. This is the distortion illusion. The inset shows a greatly magnified and highly pixelated view of the object with a thin blue ring superimposed indicating the extent of the illusion.

FORJ0332-3557 is one of several celestial objects which are known to present a cosmic illusion called Einstein Rings. So called in honor of the man who warned us long ago that massive objects in space may have enough mass and gravity to actually bend light. Einstein Rings are visible proof that he was right.

Einstein Rings happen inside massive gravity wells. The large galaxy in the foreground (center of inset) is so massive that it is bending and distorting the light coming from directly behind its gravity well. In this case the source of the light is a smaller galaxy much farther away, and directly behind the giant. It is totally hidden by the massive object in the foreground. Because a gravity well acts like a gigantic glass lens, in this case 40,000 light-years in diameter, we can clearly see the galaxy hidden behind as a crescent-shaped smear inside the lens. Not only is the distant galaxy distorted into a ring shape, it is magnified to 13 times its actual size.

Flash! Hubble finds Double Einstein Ring. Check this out. New Pics!

For more information about these discoveries take a look at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) page.