Hubble images a museum of galaxies, and some are gravitationally warped (photo)

A crowd of oval-shaped elliptical galaxies gather around the largest in the center. They are surrounded by more distant stars and galaxies, that have many shapes and sizes but all are smaller, on a dark background.

No matter how often the Hubble Space Telescope provides us with mind-numbing views of our universe, the excitement of seeing a new one always feels fresh. Such is the case for an image released by NASA on Friday (Aug. 18). 

In this portrait, we're witnessing a massive galaxy cluster named Abell 3322, which is a menagerie of realms that collectively sit some 2.6 billion light-years from our planet. As one light-year equals the distance light travels in one year, even adjusting for the universe's expansion rate, this cluster therefore appears to us as though it were frozen in time during a different epoch of cosmic history.