A distant galaxy with an Einstein ring spotted by astronomers is considered one of the most stunning examples of this phenomenon seen using the most powerful ground based observatory in the world.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope is located in Chile's Atacama desert and its antennae are about 15 kilometers apart to detect even more distant objects. ALMA has now gone online enabling astronomers to realize its full potential.

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This ancient galaxy called the SDP.81 was observed during ALMA's Long Baseline Campaign executed at the end of 2014

SDP.81 is warped by a massive foreground galaxy and is slightly bent around a warped spacetime. Scientists estimate this ancient galaxy began forming when the Universe was just 15 percent of its age today.

This warping is caused by gravitational lenses first observed by the Hubble space telescope. This phenomenon is produced when any source of light become warped around massive objects, especially in galaxy clusters.

Bright arcs are often observed and these can transform into circles that can create amazing Einstein rings.

In Hubble's survey project called "Frontier Fields", distant galaxy lights formed in arcs were pieced back together to get a better view of these stellar formations. 

This almost perfect ring comparable to the Lord of the Ring's depiction of the "Eye of Sauron" wasn't captured by Hubble but ALMA revealed a high resolution image of the ring that shows never before seen details of the young galaxy.

ALMA possesses long-baseline interferometers in every single antennae that can be spaced in great distances, simulating a satellite dish 15 kilometers wide. This configuration can boost ALMA's observational powers so it can acquire better images and data than Hubble.

TagsALMA observatory, einstein ring ancient galaxy ALMA, einstein ring, Amazing Einstein Ring 'Eye of Sauron' Ancient Galaxy Captured by ALMA