The universe just smiled back: Hubble catches a galaxy cluster grinning through bent light

NASA has shared a Hubble image of galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 that looks uncannily like a smiling face — two bright orange galaxies for eyes, a white galaxy for a nose, and a glowing arc for the grin. The smile is drawn by gravitational lensing: the cluster's enormous gravity bends and magnifies light from galaxies behind it, the way a lens does. Astronomers use that natural magnifying glass to study objects far too faint to see any other way.