The First JWST Image Is Creating Quite A Buzz Around Gravitational Lensing Because Of The Sheer Amount

The first JWST image is creating quite a buzz around gravitational lensing because of the sheer amount of it in the image. Gravitational lensing makes galaxies appear warped like these:

A very small section from Webb's first Deep Space. The background is black space and a few galaxies and stars are scattered across it. The focus is on a red-orange galaxy that is warped and appears to stretch down in an arc which then stretches into a mirror image of the same galaxy.

A very small section from Webb's first Deep Space. The background is black space and a few galaxies are scattered across it. The focus is on a yellow-orange galaxy that is warped. It is elongated, bulbous on both ends and squeezed in the middle. The squeezed part arcs around a large, white spot.

Because spacetime curves around a massive body, light bends when it's near enough a massive object, allowing us to see very distant galaxies behind the cluster we're looking at.

An illustration on a black background. Around halfway it is divided horizontally. The lower half is a blue grid with straight lines except for the center, where it appears like fabric being weighed down. In this spot a couple of white dots represent a galaxy cluster. To the left of that and slighty up so it sits above the horizontal line is a white swirl representing a galaxy. Towards the right of the cluster and slightly down (but not weighing down the grid) is a circle representing Earth. Several white lines are drawn from the galaxy on the far left in the direction of the Earth. They represent disoriented light rays and are slightly bent around the galaxy cluster. Two red lines are bent around the galaxy cluster and meet again on the other side hitting Earth. Where the red lines are at the same level with the galaxy cluster they are labelled "lensed galaxy images". The graphic represents light rays from a distant galaxy being bent around a galaxy cluster due to its massive gravity which bends space time and some of those light rays being bent just the right way to reach Earth, creating a distorted image of the galaxy behind the cluster.

Here is some recommended reading on it if you wanna learn more:

HubbleSite.org

Gravitational Lensing

SYFY Official Site

Magnificent Hubble image of a cluster warping space and stripping gas

Hubble image of galaxy cluster MACSJ01338-2155 shows gravitational lensing and gas stripped from galaxies.

Google Books

Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe

"In Einstein’s Telescope, Evalyn Gates, an expert on all that’s dark in the universe, brings dark matter, dark energy, and even black holes

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