A mysterious 'ring of fire' has been spotted in space thanks to Albert Einstein's theory of relatively.

The ring, located 12 billion light years away, is an illusion created by the chance alignment of two distant galaxies.

The striking circular structure is a rare manifestation of gravitational lensing predicted by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity.

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Alma's image of the gravitationally lensed galaxy SDP.81. The bright orange central region of the ring - Alma's highest resolution observation ever - reveals the glowing dust in this distant galaxy

WHAT IS GRAVITATIONAL LENSING? Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive galaxy or cluster of galaxies bends the light emitted from a more distant galaxy, forming a highly magnified, though much distorted image. In this particular case, the galaxy known as SDP.81 and an intervening galaxy line up so perfectly that the light from the more distant one forms a nearly complete circle as seen from Earth. Advertisement

Einstein's theory predicts that the gravitational effects of the nearer galaxy will bend the light of the more distant one.

The Alma telescope in Chile was able to capture the effect in the highest resolution images ever taken by the observatory.

In this particular case, the galaxy known as SDP.81 and an intervening galaxy line up so perfectly that the light from the more distant one forms a nearly complete circle as seen from Earth.

Discovered by the Herschel Space Observatory, SDP.81 is an active star-forming galaxy nearly 12 billion light-years away, seen at a time when the universe was only 15 percent of its current age.

It is being lensed by a massive foreground galaxy that is a comparatively nearby 4 billion light-years away.

'Gravitational lensing is used in astronomy to study the very distant, very early Universe because it gives even our best telescopes an impressive boost in power,' said Alma Deputy Program Scientist Catherine Vlahakis.

'With the astounding level of detail in these new Alma images, astronomers will now be able to reassemble the information contained in the distorted image we see as a ring and produce a reconstruction of the true image of the distant galaxy.'

An AlmaHubble composite image of the gravitationally lensed galaxy SDP.81. The diffuse blue element at the center of the ring is from the intervening lensing galaxy, as seen with the Hubble Space Telescope

The highest resolution image of SDP.81 was made by observing the relatively bright light emitted by cosmic dust in the distant galaxy.

This striking image reveals well-defined arcs in a pattern that hints at a more complete, nearly contiguous ring structure.

Though this intriguing interplay of gravity and light in SDP.81 has been studied previously by other observatories, none has captured the remarkable details of the ring structure in such detail.

'The exquisite amount of information contained in the Alma images is incredibly important for our understanding of galaxies in the early universe,' said astronomer Jacqueline Hodge with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va.

'Astronomers use sophisticated computer programs to reconstruct lensed galaxies' true appearance.

'This unravelling of the bending of light done by the gravitational lens will allow us to study the actual shape and internal motion of this distant galaxy much more clearly than has been possible until now.'