Galaxy producing its own mirror image in space, as captured by the Hubble telescope.

Although the James Webb Space Telescope is currently receiving all the attention, its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, is still faithfully taking amazing pictures of the cosmos after all these years. The primary tool used by humanity in space has been the telescope. For JWST, it will gradually make way.

The Hubble telescope has captured a novel image, and it is special because it shows an intriguing occurrence. Mirror images of the galaxy’s core can be seen in this image. Gravitational lensing is the name given to this phenomena. View the picture that the European Space Agency uploaded.

‘This NASA/ESA @HUBBLE_space Telescope image shows a gravitationally lensed galaxy with the name SGAS J143845+145407 ? Gravitational lensing has caused a mirror image of the galaxy at the centre of this picture, creating a captivating centrepiece,’ says ESA in its tweet containing the image.

A galaxy, for example, has an impact on the fabric of spacetime surrounding it due to its enormous mass. The spacetime fabric is ‘bent’ by the strong gravity. Observed here is gravitational lensing. This causes some light beams coming from the lensing source (or an object positioned behind the lensing source) to bend and travel along the bent space-time fabric. This creates a mirror image of the subject’s own object or the subject directly behind it.

The mirror-image in this instance is of the same galaxy.

Such a lensing also magnifies the picture of the object as a feature. This makes it simpler for us to thoroughly analyse the celestial body.