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Hubble’s “smiley face” is galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849, photographed in an image NASA published in February 2015. Two bright galaxies look like eyes and a smaller one resembles a nose; the curved arcs that look like a grin are light from galaxies behind the cluster, bent by gravity. The cluster is not shaped like a face.
What is the Hubble smiley-face galaxy cluster?
SDSS J1038+4849 is a galaxy cluster in the foreground of the image. Its bright galaxies create the face-like pattern: NASA identifies two as the apparent eyes and a smaller bright galaxy as the button nose. The grin is different: it is not a row of galaxies or a feature of one galaxy, but curved light from background sources.
NASA published the image story on February 9, 2015, and NASA JPL followed with its account on February 10, 2015. It is an archival Hubble image, not a newly captured 2026 scene. NASA’s image explanation and NASA JPL’s account describe the alignment.
Why does it look like a smiley face?
The appearance comes from strong gravitational lensing. The cluster’s mass warps spacetime, bending light from objects behind it. That light can appear distorted and magnified, and in this alignment it forms curved arcs around the foreground cluster.
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The distinction matters: the cluster is the lens, while the light arcs come from background sources. The arcs only appear to be a smile; they are not physical facial features. In this special, ring-like alignment, NASA calls the structure an Einstein Ring.
What can gravitational lensing show astronomers?
A gravitational lens can magnify and distort distant objects, making some sources easier to observe than they would be without the lens. NASA describes lensing as a way to study sources that might otherwise be too faint or distant. Hubble observations of lensed objects can include galaxies and, in other cases, stars and supernovae; those broader examples are not claims of a unique discovery in SDSS J1038+4849. NASA’s overview of Hubble’s gravitational lenses explains the technique.
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How did Hubble observe the cluster?
Hubble studied SDSS J1038+4849 with its Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of a survey of strong gravitational lenses. NASA JPL notes that WFPC2 was developed and built by JPL; WFC3 was developed jointly by Goddard Space Flight Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsA version of the image was entered by Judy Schmidt in Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image-processing competition. NASA acknowledges Schmidt on the image, but she should not be confused with the people or instruments responsible for making the telescope observation.
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