EINSTEIN RINGS - Man, He Was a Bad Motherfucker

The image above is an example of an Einstein Ring. Physicist and Uber-human Albert Einstein sent a mindfuck wave through the whole of Humanity's collective consciousness that has yet to reach it's peak and crash. One of the many postulates that can be deduced from Einstein's Theory of General Relativity is that, since light itself can and is bent by gravity, very large gravity sources can act as a magnifying "lens" in outer space, showing us the slightly distorted light emanating from behind the large gravity sources. These are called gravitational lenses. They can be created by other galaxies, black holes, and even regions of dark matter in deep space.

The above image shows what scientists call an Einstein Ring. Imagine two galaxies, on every very far away and another halfway to Earth but situated almost directly in the middle of our sightline to the other galaxy. That is what you see above. The faint blue "ring" around the glowing irregular/elliptical galaxy is actually the light from a galaxy itself, having been bent and distorted by the massive gravitational pull of the galaxy in front (the yellow one).

The image above (click to enlarge) collects 8 different Einstein rings. Finding these visual anomalies is extremely difficult and time consuming. For astronomers on Earth though, these lenses can shed new light on deeply mysterious questions about our macroverse and it's life-cycle. They also allow the study of galaxies and inter-stellar matter that would otherwise be invisible to us.

This image is one that completely surprised and excited scientists. What you see above is a DOUBLE Einstein Ring! This is the first one yet discovered. In the case of this image, there are two galaxies situated like beads on a necklace way beyond the gravity source for this lens, an elliptical galaxy. Fucking amazing. Below is a diagram showing the geometry necessary for these Einstein Rings to be visible here on Earth. These are not actual physical rings out in space, remember. They are just optical distortions. (click to enlarge)

Albert Einstein was always a huge fan and supporter of -FUPPETS- and -FUPPETS- would not have it any other way.