The appearance of a smiling face is causing excitement, but scientists insist it’s not a celestial extraterrestrial message. Instead, the galaxy cluster SDSSJ and some gravitational lensing have lined up everything to make it appear that someone was looking at us from deep space. The Hubble Space Telescope captured the image. It shows two eyes with orange pigments and one button. Two super-bright galaxies are responsible for the orange eyes. The smiling lips are actually arcs due to powerful gravitational lensing. Is this a celestial being looking down at us? No. No. Image:.spacetelescope.org Gravitational lensing is when light from distant objects becomes distorted and reflected around large objects, such as huge galaxies. Einstein predicted gravititational lensing in his theory general relativity. The largest structures in the Universe are galaxy clusters. They warp spacetime because of their gravitational power. Gravitational Lensing Distorts Light This powerful gravitational force can act as a cosmic filter, which can magnify, distort and bend light. According to the European Space Agency, “In this particular case of gravitational lensesing, a special ring is formed from the bending of light. This super-powerful gravitational force acts as a cosmic lens, which can distort, magnify, and bend light. Astrophysicists view the Hubble Space Telescope to be a tool for probing these massive galaxies. It allows them to see deeper into the beginning of the Universe than ever before. The “smiley” was studied by Hubble’s WFC3 and WFPC2 Wide Field Cameras 3/3. This was part of an overall survey of powerful lenses. Judy Schmidt entered a version of the smiling image into Hubble’s Hidden treasures photo processing contest.
