A tip of the hat to Jonathan Golob, a.k.a. Dear Science (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=454805), who posted an interesting frame at Slog (http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/01/that_einstein_guy_might_be_onto_somethin):

http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2008/01/DblEinsteinRing_300.jpg (http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/01/that_einstein_guy_might_be_onto_somethin)
Really Cool: A "double" Einstein ring

Mr. Golob notes Rick Fienberg's article for Sky & Telescope—

This is a spectacular example of a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. It’s caused by the distortion of space-time by massive objects. While formulating his general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein realized that because of this warping, light won’t always travel across the universe in straight lines. For example, if one galaxy lies almost directly behind another as seen from Earth, light from the more distant one will bend around the foreground galaxy and form multiple images — or, in the case of near-perfect alignment, an Einstein ring.

(Fienberg (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/13682267.html))

—which also explains just how rare (and cool) this image is:

Finding three galaxies lined up one behind another is less likely than winning two consecutive bets on the same number in roulette. So when astronomer Tommaso Treu (University of California, Santa Barbara) and his colleagues found such a galaxy trio, they knew they'd hit the cosmic jackpot ....

.... Astronomers have found nearly 50 examples to date, most of them in SDSS images. When Treu's team first looked at the ring around J0946, they thought it was like all the others. But when they shot a close-up with the Hubble Space Telescope, they discovered a broken second ring outside the first. "When I first saw it," recalls Treu, "I said, 'Wow, this is insane!' I could not believe it."

(ibid)

Golob, naturally, takes the opportunity to remind that the continuing investment in the Hubble Space Telescope is worth it.

Pretty damn cool, says I.
____________________

Notes:

Fienberg, Rick. "Astronomers Find Rare Double Einstein Ring". SkyandTelescope.com. January 10, 2008. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/13682267.html

See Also:

Golob, Jonathan. "That Einstein Guy Might Be Onto Something". Slog. January 10, 2008. See http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/01/that_einstein_guy_might_be_onto_somethin

An unusual object indeed.

SDSSJ0946+1006.kmz
Google Sky file (http://www.box.net/shared/p0az2zrswc) (1kb, kmz)

Position: R.A. 09 46 53 Dec. +10° 07 10 (rough)

While looking at Galaxyzoo photos, I saw several galaxies lined up a fair number of times (these being line of sight and almost certainly different distances from us so not really lined up). With maybe 100,000,000,000 galaxies, something like this is not that surprising.

With maybe 100,000,000,000 galaxies, something like this is not that surprising.

Neither is a needle in a haystack, if you've enough needles and a large enough haystack, and a lot of people spending a lot of time. I suppose it's fair to wonder, as well, if this alignment is along the vector of their redshift, and how many years before our relationship to that vector changes significantly.