'Canarias Einstein Ring' (IMAGE) Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) Caption This is an image of the "Canarias Einstein ring." In the centre of the picture, we can see how the source galaxy (the greenish-blue circle), which is further away "surrounds" the lens galaxy (red dot) almost completely. This phenomenon is produced because the strong gravitational field of the lens galaxy distorts the space-time in its neighborhood, bending the paths of the light rays which come from the source galaxy. As they are almost perfectly aligned, the resulting image of the source galaxy is almost circular. Credit Image made up from several images taken with the DECam camera on the Blanco 4m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile. Usage Restrictions Documents and materials on the IAC website are copyright of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. Use for commercial and publicity purposes is not authorised. Text and images may only be reproduced with the prior express permission of the Science Communication and Education Unit of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. To request permission: Include the address of the image (or information about it) in a request addressed to the Head of the Communication and Scientific Culture Unit (secUC3@iac.es) explaining what the image will be used for. License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.