'Space Invader' Galaxy Captured by Hubble Telescope (Photos)
Gravitationally lensed image of distant galaxy in Abell 68.
Image released March 5, 2013. CREDIT: ASA, ESA, and the Hubble
Heritage/ESA-Hubble Collaboration Anyone who played the classic
1970s computer game "Space Invaders" may recognize the titular
aliens in the form of a strange-looking distant galaxy spotted
by the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy's image has been
stretched and mirrored to look like an alien by a cosmic effect
called gravitational lensing, scientists said in an image
announcement today (March 5). Very massive objects, such as
clusters of galaxies, can deform space-time itself, so that
light passing through it travels a curved path and produces a
distorted image. The phenomenon is called lensing because it
often magnifies the images of distant objects that would
otherwise be too small and faint to be visible. That's just what
happened with a faraway elliptical galaxy that lies billions of
light-years from Earth. When its light p