Like a sea monster in ancient myth submerged and waiting to snatch unfortunate sailors to their doom, this celestial beast can be seen by the ripples around it. This leviathan is so titanic, however, that the ripples aren't traveling the surface of an ocean or lake but rather are distortions in the fabric of space-time itself.
This particular galaxy cluster, known as eMACS J1823.1+7822, is one of five selected for observation by Hubble astronomers to determine the strength of this "warping" effect, which was first predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
The 1915 theory, which is occasionally called Einstein's geometric theory of gravity, predicts that, as bowling balls placed on a trampoline create a depression, objects with mass cause the very fabric of space-time to warp. This curvature gives rise to the force of gravity. And the greater the mass of a cosmic object, the more extreme the warping of space it causes.
Source: www.space.com
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