Smiley Face in Deep Space Captured by Hubble Telescope
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NASA/ESA(NEW YORK) — A galaxy cluster in the far reaches of outer space looks like a smiley face in a photo caught by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
The two orange eyes and white button nose are actually very bright galaxies and the smile arc is created by an effect known as gravitational lensing, according to a statement on NASA’s website.
Galaxy clusters, the most massive structures in the universe, exert such a powerful gravitational pull that they warp space-time and the light coming from behind them, which created the arc of light that forms the smile, NASA said.
The galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 in the photo was studied by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), according to NASA.
A version of the image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt, NASA said.
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