Einstein ring seen in space Nasa JWST telescope took the photo

US Space Agency NASA The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of the NASA spacecraft has captured the light emanating from a quasar. It is Einstein Ring The quasar is known as RX J1131-1231 and is located in the Crater constellation about 6 billion light years away from our Earth. The specialty of the Einstein Ring is its four bright spots. The spots are visible due to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.

Before we move on with the news, it is important to know what a quasar is. Quasars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). These are very bright galactic cores where this kind of light emerges when gas and dust fall into a black hole.

Talking about gravitational lensing, it occurs when the light coming from a distant object such as a quasar passes through space-time. During this, the light bends all around and a ring-like shape appears.

The quasar RX J1131-1231 is a supermassive black hole at the center of a young galaxy. It emits powerful energy while consuming a lot of matter. An unknown galaxy is acting as a gravitational lens for the light of this quasar. It appears as a blue point in the middle of this ring.

Due to lensing, the light of the quasar increases and also repeats. Because of this, four bright spots are visible. The European Space Agency says that these bright spots are in effect mirror images of a bright spot formed due to lensing.

Images like the Einstein Ring are important for scientists’ research. The Einstein Ring gives a glimpse of what is there in the distant universe and what it might be like. The concept of gravitational lensing was first predicted by Albert Einstein.