Funhouse galaxy

Sometimes, I like to think of a photon of light as a car on a road. As the road dips and curves, a car has to follow that path, dipping and curving as well. It might be weird to think of space as curving, but it does. Gravity from massive objects warps space, and a beam of light moving through that curved space curves along with it. This is the principle behind what's called gravitational lensing. A beam of light passing by an object -- a big galaxy, say, or a cluster of galaxies -- bends one way. A beam headed in a slightly different direction bends a slightly different way. This can really mess with what we see... which I can prove! Check this out: a Hubble image of the galaxy RCSGA 032727-13260.