By Kelsi Matylewicz/ Social Media Intern, Benco Dental

On February 10, the Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a galaxy cluster, SDSS J1038+4849, that looks exactly like a smiley face.

NASA released the picture after it was discovered by an amateur star viewer, Judy Schmidt. She was a contestant in an image processing competition, known as Hubble’s Hidden Treasures.

The two glowing eyes are separate galaxies, while the face and smile are caused due to the celestial effect (strong gravitational lensing.)

According to Science Daily, “galaxy clusters are the most massive structures in the Universe and exert powerful gravitational pull that warps the spacetime around them and acts as cosmic lenses which can magnify, distort and bend the light behind them. This phenomenon, crucial to many of Hubble’s discoveries, can be explained by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.”

Telescopes can offer some beautiful images, take the time and admire the sky.