A strange “mirror image” galaxy cluster in deep space, sighted billions of light-years away, was discovered a few years ago and researchers are now starting to wrap their heads around it—and grasping the “carnival funhouse mirrors” of outer space was key in unravelling the mystery.
Gazing into deep space through NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is a bit like looking into a carnival funhouse mirror. The wavy fabric of space, distorted by the gravity of celestial objects such as far-off galaxy clusters, can have the same effect as a wonky mirror, stretching, magnifying, or even brightening scenes from further reaches—a phenomenon known by astronomers as “gravitational lensing.”
