Okay, let’s face it, this is cool. Now, this could mean:

A) This is a benevolent gesture by the vast collective consciousness to put us at ease and let us know we are on the right path. Or…

B) Maybe the universe hates us. Look at it – the glowing eyes, the malevolent smirk – well, I just can’t help the feeling that this is just a bit creepy and we are about to be wiped from existence by a cruel and displeased god.

Of course it could just be random chance that this picture was taken at just the right moment to make it seem as if the universe is making a smiley face at us and has no meaning whatsoever. But c’mon, what are the odds of that?

Hubble Sees A Smiling Lens

In the center of this image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 — and it seems to be smiling.

You can make out its two orange eyes and white button nose. In the case of this “happy face”, the two eyes are very bright galaxies and the misleading smile lines are actually arcs caused by an effect known as strong gravitational lensing.

Galaxy clusters are the most massive structures in the Universe and exert such a powerful gravitational pull that they warp the spacetime around them and act as cosmic lenses which can magnify, distort and bend the light behind them. This phenomenon, crucial to many of Hubble’s discoveries, can be explained by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

In this special case of gravitational lensing, a ring — known as an Einstein Ring — is produced from this bending of light, a consequence of the exact and symmetrical alignment of the source, lens and observer and resulting in the ring-like structure we see here.

Hubble has provided astronomers with the tools to probe these massive galaxies and model their lensing effects, allowing us to peer further into the early Universe than ever before. This object was studied by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of a survey of strong lenses.

A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA | Caption: ESA | Coutesy of NASA.org