We gotta keep this telescope operational: Hubble discovers 67 new gravitationally lensed galaxies

What is gravitational lensing?

Gravitational lensing occurs when light travelling toward us from a distant galaxy is magnified and distorted as it encounters a massive object between the galaxy and us. These gravitational lenses often allow astronomers to peer much farther back into the early universe than they would normally be able to do.

Here is a cool video of an Einstein Ring.

An Einstein ring is a complete circle image of a background galaxy, which is formed when the background galaxy, a massive, foreground galaxy, and the Hubble Space Telescope are all aligned perfectly.

Therein creating a complete circle lense effect.

So pretty pictures are nice, but what impact do these discoveries have on astro-physics?  Well read on dear surfer, read on.

...they can be used to create a census of galaxy masses in the universe to test the predictions of cosmological models.

Basically, since we understand how gravity works here, and we can get estimates of galaxy size out there, we can then compare and contrast and see if gravity remains constant from one side of the visible universe to the other.