A recent image from NASA’s latest capture taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, shown above, serves as a striking demonstration of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, resulting in a phenomenon known as an “Einstein ring.”

The formation of Einstein rings occurs when the light emitted by a distant object is curved around the mass of another, closer, and larger object. Although this effect is typically too subtle to be observed at a local level, it becomes apparent when considering the curvatures of light on vast astronomical scales, as explained by NASA. In this specific instance, the light from a distant galaxy is warped around the mass of another galaxy.

This phenomenon, technically referred to as “gravitational lensing,” represents the practical application of Einstein’s general relativity. The curvature of spacetime, which is the fabric of the universe composed of space and time, around an object’s mass, is what we perceive as gravity. Objects like the ones depicted in the image, featuring an elliptical galaxy wrapped in a spiral galaxy, provide “the ideal laboratory for researching galaxies that are too faint and distant to be seen otherwise.”

This Einstein ring was captured as part of the “Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey,” conducted at the University of Liège in Belgium. The survey, led by a team of astronomers, aims “to trace eight billion years of galaxy cluster evolution,” according to NASA.