At first glance it seems that the picture was taken through a faulty lens. However, the distortions captured by the wide-angle camera 3 of the Hubble Space Telescope are caused by a cosmic phenomenon.
In the center of the frame you can see a bright object - the galactic cluster SDSS J1336-0331. The large-scale gravitational influence of the cluster distorts the very shape and structure of the environment (space-time), creating the effect of gravitational lensing. This leads to the fact that the light from the background galaxies on the line of view of the observer bends into fantastic arcs. The effect is useful in studying distant background galaxies. But SDSS J1336-0331 is interesting in itself. The cluster was part of a study of stellar birth within the 42 brightest galaxies in clusters. Usually they are one of the most massive and bright galaxies in space. More often all these are giant elliptical galaxies with active nuclei. Analysis has shown that they are fed by cold gas, and the stellar birth in older bright clusters of galaxies does not make a significant contribution to the growth of the galaxy. Instead, stellar growth is carried out by galactic collisions.
