A Gravitational Portal Has Been Discovered on the Outskirts of Our Galaxy—A Perfect Einstein Ring

The European Space Observatory Euclid has helped make an amazing discovery literally within walking distance of our galaxy — just 590 million light years away, which is almost the backwater of the Milky Way by the standards of the Universe. The telescope has captured a picture of a perfect Einstein Ring — a phenomenon of strong gravitational lensing, when a massive object distorts and magnifies distant stars and galaxies. And this case turned out to be unique.

A close-up view of the gravitational lens around the galaxy NGC 6505. Image credit: ESA

Typically, Einstein Rings are created by galaxy clusters. The colossal mass concentrated in a relatively small volume of space serves as an ideal gravitational lens for distant objects. However, the discovery made by Euclid was the first to record this phenomenon in a single galaxy, discovered back in 1884. This is NGC 6505, which scientists have already studied in detail. No surprises were expected from it, but thanks to the high sensitivity of the Euclid observatory’s sensors, something new and surprising was discovered around NGC 6505 – a perfect ring of light and four inclusions, each of which is the same image of a distant, previously undiscovered galaxy.

According to early estimates, the distance to this distant galaxy, magnified by the gravity of NGC 6505, is about 4.42 billion light years. Euclid is expected to discover up to 100,000 strong gravitational lenses, which will allow us to peer into the depths of the Universe without the need for new, more powerful telescopes. At the same time, the observatory is hunting for a more subtle phenomenon – weak gravitational lensing effects, which will provide more accurate estimates of processes and phenomena in the Universe. Weak gravitational lensing manifests itself in small distortions in the visible shapes of galaxies, but it carries more valuable information for the scientific problems solved with the help of Euclid.

This observatory should help determine the characteristics of dark matter and dark energy, which will bring their search and study closer. To do this, Euclid will survey about a third of the sky to a depth of 10 billion light years. The publication of the first observation results has already begun, and it is especially pleasing that in addition to the expected data, unique discoveries are also appearing, such as the Einstein Ring, which is relatively close to us.