Artist's impression of a galaxy surrounded by gravitational disortions

A galaxy surrounded by a coloured haze, with lenses due to gravitational distortion
Artist's impression of a galaxy surrounded by gravitational distortions due to dark matter. Galaxies live inside larger concentrations of invisible dark matter (coloured purple in this image), however the dark matter's effects can be seen by looking at the deformations of background galaxies.
Swinburne Astronomy Productions - James Josephides