A cosmic flower with blue petals | Check out this image by Very Large Telescope

The European Southern Observatory's Picture of the Week features several galaxies, with the most fascinating being the one surrounded by four light-blue dots - resembling a flower with blue petals.

Captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, the image shows a pattern dubbed an Einstein Cross. The four blue petals are actually images of a distant galaxy hidden behind the orange galaxy at the centre, which acts as a gravitational lens, bending the light emitted from the distant galaxy around it, resulting in several images of the distant galaxy, distorted and magnified.

Gravitational lensing is a vital tool that allows astronomers to discover hidden galaxies that would be otherwise invisible. The hidden galaxy in this VLT image appears as four images around the central lens galaxy, forming a cross-like (or flower-like) pattern so-called an Einstein Cross.

Surrounded by four light-blue dots, this galaxy resembles a flower with petals! 🌼 But, are these dots real? Yes and no. Taken with our #VLT this image shows a so-called Einstein Cross. pic.twitter.com/0uAV5yvaaF

— ESO (@ESO) September 11, 2023

VLT, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, is made up of four Unit Telescopes with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter and four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes. It is the most productive individual ground-based facility.

This particular observation was conducted using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at VLT. The instrument splits the light coming from every point within the area being observed into a rainbow or spectrum, providing astronomers with a wealth of information about the objects within the field of view.

According to ESO's post, the results of these observations show that the distant galaxy is forming stars at a rapid rate. Since light left the galaxy when the Universe was about 20% of its current age, studying it provides clues about how galaxies formed in the early Universe.