... The gravitational lens effect of the red, foreground, elliptical galaxy visible near image center creates a cloverleaf image of the single distant quasar . Light from the quasar is pulled around the massive galaxy in different paths, corresponding to different images. ... Since light takes a different amount of time to traverse each path, each image shows the quasar as it appeared at a slightly different time in the past, creating time delays on the time scale of days. ...