A field of galaxies in space, dominated by an enormous, bright-white elliptical galaxy that is the core of a massive galaxy cluster. Many other elliptical galaxies can be seen around it. Also around it are short, curved, glowing red lines, which are images of distant background galaxies magnified and warped by gravitational lensing. A couple of foreground stars appear large and bright with long spikes around them.

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   CosmicRami (cosmicrami@aus.social)'s status on Tuesday, 27-May-2025 23:36:10 JST CosmicRami

   Incredible new #JWST deep field (120 hours!) released by folks from ESA/NASA Webb teams.

   Not only is nearly everything in this image a galaxy (the two spiky stars are not), but those curved arcs are images of galaxies beyond this cluster, which are projected and warped into our view thanks to the power of gravity!

   It's called a gravitational lens. To visualise what's happening, take a look at this diagram.

   There are distant galaxies that we can't normally see. There's also a galaxies between them and us, with lots of mass.

   This mass warps space-time and bends the distant galaxy light towards us so we see them.

   I am amazed. You should be amazed. This is a really epic image.

   Galaxy image and alt-text credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Atek, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

   Diagram credit: NASA, ESA & L. Calçada

   #Galaxies #GravitationalLensing #GalaxyCluster #Astrodon