Rare Einstein ring found in Earth’s ‘cosmic backyard’

***The Telegraph reports:***

Scientists have found a rare Einstein ring in “our cosmic backyard” using images from the [Euclid space telescope](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/23/astronomers-solving-dark-matter-mystery-telescope-images/).

The discovery, revealed in the journal Astronomy And Astrophysics, is of a circle of light created by gravitational lensing around a galaxy 500 million light years away called NGC 6505.

This ring is made up of light from another galaxy 4.42 billion light years away and what can be seen from Earth is distorted by gravity. The distant galaxy has not been observed before and has not yet been named.

Prof Thomas Collett, from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, said such rings can help scientists test Albert Einstein’s [general theory of relativity](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/16/star-orbiting-supermassive-black-hole-proves-albert-einsteins/).

He said: “This lens is particularly special because it’s in our cosmic backyard: a ‘mere’ 500 million light years away.

“In fact, it’s so close that astronomers first observed the galaxy in the 1880s, but only with the [resolving power of Euclid](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/01/spacex-ucl-esa-euclid-launch-telescope-mission/) can we now reveal that it’s a gravitational lens.

“Nearby lenses are exciting because they allow us to test the validity of general relativity on astronomical scales.”

**Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/10/rare-einstein-ring-found-earths-cosmic-backyard-ngc-6505/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/10/rare-einstein-ring-found-earths-cosmic-backyard-ngc-6505/)