An astrophysicist explains the science behind a recent incredible James Webb Space Telescope image. How does gravity warp light?
Astrophysicist Jacqueline McCleary from Northeastern University explains the science behind a new image captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope . The image reveals a cosmic formation resembling a question mark, stirring excitement among astronomers., McCleary offers much more information about it. McCleary explains that this intriguing formation results from a rare alignment between two distant galaxies and a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.
“There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding this system. What’s truly astonishing about it is that gravitational lensing — with its multiple images, brightening, and magnification—enables us to study the process of galaxy assembly, which is how a galaxy constructs itself, in incredibly detailed and spatially resolved ways,” McCleary states.
These images are essential for astronomers and astrophysicists, who, despite centuries of research, continually endeavor to answer the fundamental question about the universe: How are galaxies formed?However, McCleary clarifies that the “question mark pair,” as astronomers have come to call this formation, isn’t actually shaped like a question mark.
What stands out most about the image is not so much what it depicts, but rather when it shows, McCleary says. The rare combination of cosmic alignment and gravitational lensing has effectively created a time machine: This galaxy cluster is so distant that the light being captured by the Webb telescope is from seven billion years ago, roughly half of the universe’s current age.
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