Illustration of a gravitational lensing effect

This image illustrates a gravitational lensing effect. Imagine the Earth (represented as a blue sphere on the left), a massive body (represented as a yellow sphere near the centre) and a spiral galaxy are aligned. The massive body distorts the spacetime (represented as the yellow grid) and observers on Earth, instead of seeing the spiral galaxy as it is, see the galaxy distorted, as arcs of light. It is like having a "lens" in front of the galaxy.