Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2025

T he largest bright white oval is a supergiant elliptical galaxy and the dominant member of this galaxy cluster. The galaxy cluster acts like a lens, magnifying and distorting the light of objects that lie well behind it, an effect known as gravi- tational lensing that has big research benefits. Astronomers can study lensed galaxies in detail, like the Firefly Sparkle galaxy. [NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (NRC-Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia)]