Galaxy Cluster Warp Space and Time, James Webb Telescope shown

Cosmic seahorse
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Rigby

  • NASA’s James Webb Telescope has released new cosmic images of galactic “arcs and streaks” in space.
  • Galaxies bend space and time in a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.
  • This effect also helps to magnify distant galaxies.

New images of galactic “bows and streaks” in space released by NASA’s James Webb Telescope show what a phenomenon called gravitational lensing might look like.

Gravitational lensing is a literal distortion of space-time. It occurs when a celestial body with a large gravitational force “causes enough curvature of space-time that the path of light around it is visibly bent, as if by a lens”, The European Space Agency explains.

Essentially, the orb distorts the galaxies and stars behind it to a person looking from far away.

Gravitational lensing also has a magnifying effect, making it useful for scientists studying distant galaxies that might otherwise be difficult to detect. The galaxy cluster SDSS J1226+2149 shown in this newer image is located about 6.3 billion light-years away, in the constellation of Coma Berenices, according to the European Space Agency.

Because of this effect, NIRCam, its primary near-infrared webcam, was able to capture a clearer, brighter camera image. Seahorse cosmic galaxy It appears as a “long, bright, distorting arc propagating near the heart” in the right lower quadrant.

The revolutionary space telescope, which continues to capture some of the sharpest, sharpest images of the far reaches of the universe, gravitationally lensed last year an image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. The “Deep Field” image, which was the first full-color image NASA revealed of Webb, was taken on April 11 July, galaxies over 13 billion years old.

The first deep-field infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, released July 11, 2022.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The images, released in October, included a group of stars 5.6 billion light-years away. Light from the MACS0647-JD system is bent and amplified by the massive gravity of galaxy cluster MACS0647.

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