Cosmic strings are a kind of 'defects' in the topology of space, a kind of one-dimensional, line-shaped cracks that could have formed just after the Big Bang and were later 'stretched' due to the expansion of the Universe itself. . Desktop Code Image for mobile, amp and app Mobile Code AMP Code APP Code As explained in a study led by Margarita Safonova, from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, the two galaxies could not be two different objects, but rather the duplicate image of a single galaxy by a light effect called 'gravitational lensing', which occurs when a very massive object gets in the way of a light ray emitted by another much more distant object. The massive object, usually a galaxy or cluster, warps space and forces light to bend causing distortions, magnifications or duplications observable by astronomers. But according to the study, in this case the reason why the light doubles would not be a galaxy or a group of them, but a cosmic rope, a long 'scar' in space itself and which researchers believe opens between us and the duplicate galaxy. You can also listen to all episodes of the 'Dark Matter' podcast on Spotify, Ivoox, Apple podcast and Google podcast.