Warped tour…of space? ✨
See those strange arcs and streaks in this new Webb image? They’re actually distant galaxies, magnified and warped due to an effect called gravitational lensing.
This effect occurs when an object — here, a foreground galaxy cluster — has such a massive gravitational pull that it warps time and space around it. Light follows that bend instead of traveling in a straight line, distorting and brightening what’s behind the object.
Because it magnifies distant objects that would otherwise be too faint or far away, gravitational lensing is a useful tool for astronomers. One example in this image is a galaxy known as the Cosmic Seahorse, seen as a long distorted arc in the lower right quadrant. Its brightness is greatly magnified by the gravitational lens, allowing astronomers to study star formation there.
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Rigby
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