For centuries, astronomers have looked to the cosmos for answers to the universe's biggest questions. But an image recently released by NASA indicates the universe might have questions of its own.

Captured with NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope, the image shows a cosmic question mark made up of galaxies and cosmic dust. The image has astronomers buzzing, but what exactly is happening here?

No, this is not some kind of sign from the heavens. Instead, this piece of cosmic punctuation is actually the result of a rare alignment between two distant galaxies and a concept called gravitational lensing, says Jacqueline McCleary, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University.

Gravitational lensing is what happens when massive objects in outer space, like galaxies and groups of galaxies called galaxy clusters, distort the fabric of space-time and any light that is traveling from behind the object, says McCleary.

"In this system the gravitational lens is a cluster of galaxies," McCleary says. "Galaxy clusters are very massive, so the distortion of spacetime around them is extreme. What this galaxy cluster has done is strongly lensed ... a pair of distant galaxies."

Gravitational lensing essentially creates a cosmic microscope that not only distorts but magnifies and brightens objects, helping the already powerful Webb telescope capture a sharp image of such distant galaxies.

However, McCleary explains, the "question mark pair," as astronomers have come to call this formation, isn't actually shaped like a question mark.

"It is the warping of spacetime caused by the galaxy cluster that stretches out the light from these two different galaxies, a bit like a funhouse mirror," McCleary says. "They're not actually question mark shaped. They just appear like a question mark shaped from our vantage point here on Earth."