An eclectic mix of galaxies shines in this Hubble space telescope image - including a bright blue arc above the red galaxy in the centre.

This arc is actually an optical illusion caused by gravitational lensing, when light from a distant source is magnified and distorted by the mass of an object in front of it. The blue distorted arc is actually a galaxy about 10 billion light years away.

This ancient galaxy existed only a few billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was about a quarter of its present age.

Image description:

Several galaxies glow against black space, including a red galaxy in the centre and a small, blue arc above it. A long-armed yellow spiral galaxy shines in the lower right and a bright blue-white galaxy in the upper centre.