This smiley face hovering in space looks like it was beamed into the heavens by a celestial keyboard. Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, it was in fact created by a quirk of general relativity known as gravitational lensing.
The glowing eyes are bright galaxies that are part of a galaxy cluster known as SDSS J1038+4849. The massive structure warps space-time, bending light like a lens to create a stretched image of distant galaxies, called an Einstein ring. The well-positioned circular shape creates the outline of the face and the wry grin.
The happy face was uncovered by amateur astronomer Judy Schmidt in a similar image while hunting for submissions for the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition. Contestants search through the space telescope's vast archives for overlooked discoveries.
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