NASA detects smiley in new galaxy

Washington

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a formation of galaxies that looks like a smiling face, said the US space agency.

On Saturday, it posted an image on its Instagram handle that showed two yellow orbs above an arc of light -- painting a smiley face in space.

Asking its followers to find the face, NASA explained that using unprecedented resolution of the Hubble's camera it was able to locate and study regions of star formation.

The arc of light is a galaxy whose shape has been distorted and stretched as a result of passing a massive gravity source, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

"The lower, arc-shaped galaxy has the characteristic shape of a galaxy that has been gravitationally lensed -- its light has passed near a massive object en route to us, causing it to become distorted and stretched out of shape," said NASA.

The smiling face is located in the galaxy cluster SDSS J0952+3434, and was shot with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

The Hubble telescope returned to normal operations on October 26 after successfully recovering a backup gyroscope replacing a failed in October.

Originally set to last 15 years, Hubble has now been in action making scientific discoveries for more than 28 years.

IANS