Nearly Perfect 'Einstein Ring' Forged From Ancient Galaxy (Image)

Albert Einstein theorized that the fabric of space-time was not rigid, but flexible, like the surface of a trampoline. A massive object, in this case a foreground galaxy, can bend space the way a bowling ball bends the fabric of the trampoline. The Einstein ring's discovery was made by happenstance when Margherita Bettinelli, a Ph.D. student at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna, in the Canary Islands, was working on her thesis.