The European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday that its Euclid space telescope has detected a rare bright halo of light around a nearby galaxy.

Known as an Einstein ring, the halo was captured in photos encircling a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away, which is considered close by cosmic standards. A single light-year is measured at 5.8 trillion miles.

While astronomers have known about the galaxy where the phenomenon was captured for over a century, they were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring, 

Euclid blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 1, 2023, to begin a six-year mission to explore the dark universe.

GIANT STELLAR NURSERY REVEALED IN NEW IMAGES FROM ESA'S SPACE TELESCOPE

But before the space telescope could begin its survey of the universe, scientists had to ensure everything onboard was working properly. During the early phase of testing, which took place in September 2023, Euclid sent images back to Earth.

The ESA said the images were deliberately out of focus, but in one of the images, Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri saw what he believed was a very special phenomenon and decided to look at it a bit closer.

"I look at the data from Euclid as it comes in," Bruno said in a press release from the ESA. "Even from that first observation, I could see it, but after Euclid made more observations of the area, we could see a perfect Einstein ring. For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing."

For most of the population out there, an Einstein Ring is an "extremely rare phenomenon," the ESA said.

POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE SPIES SPECTACULAR STAR BIRTH CLUSTER BEYOND THE MILKY WAY

When a distant galaxy is observed through a telescope, the light from that galaxy may encounter another galaxy on its way to the telescope. When that happens, the foreground galaxy acts like a magnifying glass, and gravity causes the traveling light rays to bend. When light rays bend, scientists call that gravitational lensing, according to the ESA.

When the background galaxy, lensing galaxy and telescope are in perfect alignment, the image appears as a ring, also known as an Einstein Ring.

The galaxy, called NGC 6506, is about 590 million light-years away, and this is the first time the ring of light around its center has ever been detected.

"All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically," Conor O’Riordan of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics said. "This one is particularly special, because it’s so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful."

POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES PHOTOS OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST SUPERNOVA EVER SEEN

Einstein rings are based on physicist Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which predicts that light will bend around objects in space, so they focus the light like giant lenses, ESA said. The phenomenon allows scientists to sometimes see the light from distant galaxies that would otherwise be hidden.

"I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed within a well-known galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884," Valeria Pettorino, ESA Euclid project scientist, said. "The galaxy has been known to astronomers for a very long time. And yet this ring was never observed before. This demonstrates how powerful Euclid is, finding new things even in places we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for the future of the Euclid mission and demonstrates its fantastic capabilities."

Over the course of the mission, scientists expect Euclid will reveal more about the role of gravity in the Universe, as well as the nature of dark energy and dark matter.

Euclid will map over a third of the sky and observe billions of galaxies as far as 10 billion light-years away, ESA said. In doing so, scientists expect Euclid to find around 100,000 more strong lenses, though finding one so cosmically close to home and so spectacular, ESA added, "is astonishing."

"Euclid is going to revolutionize the field, with all this data we've never had before," O’Riordan said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Space Coast’s new congressman wants the U.S. to set bold goals for exploration beyond our Earth, believing the country’s potential will take Americans sky-high – literally.

"We need to do everything we can to make sure it's safe, but it's done in a way that removes some of the superfluous red tape so that we can get out there, compete and beat China and beat any other nation," Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital in an interview.

"Because the moon and beyond is not a cliché from a Disney movie. It is the future."

Haridopolos said he would "love" to see the U.S. return to the moon in the next four years of the Trump administration. The Florida Republican was careful not to speak in absolutes, noting, "We can’t guarantee anything," but credited billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos with revitalizing the science and space sector to make such conversations possible.

JOHNSON BLASTS DEM ACCUSATIONS HE VOWED TO END OBAMACARE AS 'DISHONEST'

"It's a stepping stone," he said. "For example, as we're starting to move towards [nuclear power], with the need for more and more energy here in the United States…There's particles that are on the moon that they would bring back because they're very scarce here in America [and] around the world."

Helium-3 is a highly coveted resource found on the moon known to be key in nuclear fusion processes.

"From that point, you settle the moon, and then you go on to Mars, which has been, of course, Elon Musk's vision," Haridopolos said. "When he thought of things like SpaceX, it was, how do I get to Mars? And then how do you pay to get to Mars? That was the inspiration behind a lot of the new technologies he helped create. And now he's got a fellow zillionaire in Jeff Bezos dreaming of the same type of things. It's really exciting"

DANIEL PENNY TO BE TAPPED FOR CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL BY HOUSE GOP LAWMAKER

In Congress, the first-term lawmaker represents part of the country that’s famous for being home to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Space Coast broke its all-time annual record with 93 orbital launches last year, according to Florida Today.

Just this week it’s scheduled to host launches by both Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 and Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket.

He lauded both President-elect Trump’s vision for space as well as new House Space Science and Technology Chairman Brian Babin, R-Texas.

NASA'S MARTIAN HELICOPTER PROMISES UNPRECEDENTED VIEWS OF THE RED PLANET

"Donald Trump has proven day-one and officially in 2019 that he loves space," he said, referring to Trump’s creation of the Space Force.

He suggested that the U.S. approach to the final frontier may not be dissimilar to the optimism and pride seen in 1969, when Americans landed a team of astronauts on the moon.

"It was an inspiration for my parents’ generation," Haridopolos said. "Now, of course, Elon Musk gave us this whole new vision of landing potentially, in our lifetime, on Mars. It's remarkable. And so the president said this is the future."

Recent photos taken by India’s Space Research Organization moon orbiter, known as Chandrayaan 2, clearly show the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 landing sites more than 50 years later. 

The photos were taken by the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter in April 2021 and were reshared on Curiosity’s X page – which posts about space exploration – on Wednesday. 

"Image of Apollo 11 and 12 taken by India's Moon orbiter. Disapproving Moon landing deniers," Curiosity wrote on X, along with the overhead photos that show the landing vehicles on the surface of the moon. 

Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, making Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first men to walk on its surface. 

US PREPARES TO DEORBIT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AMID CHINA COMPETITION 

Astronaut Michael Collins, the third man on the Apollo 11 mission, remained in orbit while Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the moon. 

The lunar module, known as Eagle, was left in lunar orbit after it rendezvoused with the command module Collins was in the next day and Eagle eventually landed back on the moon’s surface. 

Apollo 12 was NASA’s second crewed mission to land on the moon on Nov. 19, 1969, in which Charles "Pete" Conrad and Alan Bean became the third and fourth men to walk on its surface.  

The Apollo missions continued until December 1972, when the program was shut down and astronaut Eugene Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon. 

NASA FINALIZES STRATEGY FOR HUMAN PRESENCE IN SPACE

The Chandrayaan-2 mission launched on July 22, 2019, exactly 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission and two years before it captured images of the 1969 lunar landers. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

India also launched Chandrayaan-3 last year, which became the first mission to successfully land neat the moon’s south pole.