At first glance this Hubble image seems to show a single galaxy, but it actually contains three galaxies at very different distances. The closest is about 2.7 billion light-years away, a second galaxy lies nearby, and a very distant galaxy about 19.5 billion light-years away sits directly behind the first. The crescent of light is the distant galaxy, bent into a partial Einstein ring by the gravity of the nearer galaxies. Gravitational lensing occurs because mass bends spacetime, which bends light passing through it. The partial ring was identified thanks to SPACE WARPS, a citizen science project in which members of the public helped find lensing systems.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.