A perfect Einstein Ring spotted inside NGC 6505
Some galaxies wear their mystery like jewelry — and NGC 6505 just revealed its most cosmic accessory yet.
At first glance, NGC 6505 looks like a fairly typical elliptical galaxy in the constellation Draco, first spotted way back in the 1800s. But a recent image captured by the Euclid Space Telescope has flipped the script. Nestled right at its center is something we’ve never seen before in this galaxy: a perfect Einstein Ring — and it’s causing quite the buzz.
So… is there another galaxy living inside NGC 6505? Well, not exactly. But it sure looks like it.
A trick of light — or a doorway to the distant past?
This isn’t a case of cosmic nesting dolls. What we’re seeing is a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, where the light from a distant object is bent by the gravity of something massive in front of it — in this case, NGC 6505.
The result? A nearly perfect glowing ring made from the light of a much more distant galaxy, perfectly aligned with NGC 6505 and distorted into this striking shape.
You can take a look for yourself here:
Einstein Ring in NGC 6505 (Image link)
What’s Euclid got to do with it?
Launched in 2023, Euclid is a space telescope with one big goal: to unravel the mysteries of dark matter, dark energy, and how the universe is expanding. It does this using ultra-sensitive instruments and a superpower known as… gravitational lensing!
This is the same effect first confirmed during a solar eclipse in 1919, when Arthur Eddington noticed stars shifting position due to the Sun’s gravity. It was one of the first big wins for Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
Now, thanks to Euclid’s keen eyes, we’re spotting these distortions all over the place — and each one helps us better map the dark, invisible stuff holding the universe together.
So what are we really looking at?
That glowing ring isn’t part of NGC 6505 at all. It’s the stretched, magnified light of a galaxy 4.42 billion light-years behind it — a perfect alignment that let us peek through this cosmic magnifying glass.
Using this ring, scientists can reverse-engineer what the distant galaxy actually looks like and study things like its star formation history and even the dark matter surrounding NGC 6505. It’s like holding up a funhouse mirror to the universe — and then digitally flattening it back to its original form.
What’s next?
Every Einstein Ring we spot isn’t just a pretty picture. It’s a clue. A piece of a puzzle that could help us understand the invisible — from dark matter halos to the fate of the cosmos itself.
So here’s the big question:
If one ring can unlock this much, what will Euclid reveal next?