NASA’s Hubble Telescope peered deep into a cluster of galaxies called Abell 68 recently and found a wicked space invader that looks like it’s headed right for us. Brace for impact!
So what’s a classic video game baddie doing hanging out two billion light-years away? NASA explains that the gravitational field surrounding the galaxies works like a magnifying glass, brightening and stretching light from far away. So you’re seeing stretched and mirrored images — a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing — that just happens to look like a space invader.
Sure, it’s not real, but it’s fun to let your imagination run light-years away and imagine that the old game is actually happening out there in the cosmos. [NASA]