This event was first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915 as a consequence of his theory of general relativity.
The Einstein Cross is a fascinating astronomical phenomenon.
It was discovered in 1985 by a team of astronomers led by Dennis Walsh.
It is also known as Q2237+0305, located in the constellation Pegasus.
It had a redshift of z= 1.7.
That makes it one of the most distant known quasars.
The phenomenon was named the “Einstein Cross” due to the cross-like pattern.
The pattern was created by the four bright images of the quasar around the lensing galaxy.
In this case, a foreground elliptical galaxy, has distorted and split a beam of light from a background galaxy about 11 billion light-years away.
That elliptical galaxy is located around 6 billion light-years from Earth.
The lens responsible for the Einstein Cross’s stunning display was recently developed in 2021 by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA.