Astronomers have discovered seven distant galaxies aligned with a galaxy cluster; together, they form one of the most unique configurations of galaxies ever seen.
This arrangement of warped and stretched galaxies contains the largest "Einstein cross," in reference to repeated views of the same galaxy in the same image due to consequences of general relativity — namely, gravitational lensing. The newly discovered, strongly lensed galaxies are collectively referred to as the "Carousel Lens." The galaxies appear to be stretched and swirled in the Carousel Lens because of the influence of a so-called "lensing galaxy cluster," which is located closer to Earth at 5 billion light-years away.
