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
Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/found-first-actively-forming-galaxy-as-lightweight-as-young-milky-way/ #NASA #Astrophysics #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #GravitationalLensing #JamesWebbSpaceTelescopeJWST #ScienceResearch #TheUniverse
NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-reveals-distorted-galaxy-forming-cosmic-question-mark/ #NASA #Astrophysics #Galaxies #GalaxiesStarsBlackHoles #GalaxyClusters #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #GravitationalLensing #JamesWebbSpaceTelescopeJWST #ScienceResearch #TheUniverse
Early South Pole Telescope data has found that Einstein was right… again
by Jacinta Bowler for Cosmos Magazine
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/south-pole-telescope-general-relativity/
I don't talk about astronomy nearly enough, so let's change that!
One of the most groundbreaking developments in astronomy has been the absolutely mind-blowing work the James Webb Space Telescope has been putting out in a fraction of the time it took the old Hubble Space Telescope to produce similar work. Here are a couple of recent images I find particularly remarkable.
S1 LMC N79 – Dorado
Honestly, this image is just beautiful to look at. It’s even more breathtaking when you consider that this is just one cloud within this star-forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which itself is an irregular galaxy located about 163,000 light-years from Earth. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere and find yourself a suitably dark place, you can gaze up and see this whole other galaxy as a milky blotch in the night sky.
You can read more about this image here.
A gravitationally lensed supernova in MRG-M0138 – Cetus
It's pretty wild seeing the immense force of gravity contained within these galactic clusters warp distant points of light in these visually striking ways. Each arc is a galaxy far beyond the cluster itself that allow us to peer further back in time. Sometimes these warped images mirror themselves on the complete opposite side of the cluster, like ripples on a pond. In the case of this distant supernova, the light emanating from that cataclysmic event is being reflected in such a way that it's reappearing further down the length of the arc, making it seem as though there are two supernovae happening when in fact they are the same.
You can read more about this image here.
The JWST Discovery of the Triply-imaged Type Ia "Supernova H0pe" and Observations of the #GalaxyCluster PLCK G165.7+67.0: https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.07326 -> JWST’s first triple-image supernova could save the Universe: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/triple-lens-supernova-jwst/ - named #Supernova H0pe, it shows how #JWST plus #GravitationalLensing can be used to solve the greatest puzzle facing astronomy today, the #HubbleConstant tension.
Ultra Rare Warped Supernova Creates a Unique Einstein Cross - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBbF_UWnYUA
#GravitationalLensing by the #GalaxyCluster SDSS J1226+2149, imaged by the #JWST's NIRCAM from 1.2 bis 4.4 µm (particularly funny details): https://esawebb.org/images/potm2303a/
Gravitational Lensing
Einstein's Theory of Relativity predicted that the path of light should bend slightly when influenced by an object's gravitational field, but how to prove it?
Sir Frank Watson Dyson, Britain's Astronomer Royal, conceived the perfect experiment to test the theory by using the upcoming total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. The sun would cross the path of the bright Hyades star cluster and the light from the cluster would have to pass through the sun's gravitational field on its way to Earth. The eclipsing of the sun's normally blinding light by the moon would make it darker and easier to measure any slight shift in the faint light from the cluster.
Sir Arthur Eddington, British Astronomer, mathematician and physicist, led the experiment making precise measurements of the positions of the stars prior to the eclipse. During the eclipse astronomers took pictures from several locations on Earth during the six minutes of total eclipse and Eddington compiled these data. When Eddington announced the results confirming Einstein's predictions on November 6th, 1919, Einstein became a celebrity overnight.
The bending of light around massive objects is now known as "gravitational lensing" and is used in astronomy to try to understand dark matter and the expansion of the universe, and to find exoplanets.
More at: https://www.zmescience.com/science/physics/what-is-gravitational-lensing-astronomers/
More on gravitational lensing here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/research/topic/gravitational-lensing
Whilst I was just observing with Parkes, pulled down some #JWST images & processed them.
1. everything here is a galaxy
2. Foreground galaxies lensing background galaxies
Always like to do a little reading about these targets, and these images are of SGAS J122651.3+215220 ...
Lensed galaxy SGAS J122651.3+215220 is at z= 2.923 and the foreground cluster (SDSS J1226+2152) is at z = 0.43
These are ... billions upon billions of years old! The foreground galaxy clusters ... even though they are still very far from us, act as a huge mass, and their gravity causes the space-time around them to be curved, so light is bent towards us, so we see the background galaxies as smeared arcs.
And whilst those brightly lensed arcs are interesting, if you look carefully, you’ll note that there are also these fainter arcs (annotated by arrows)
These are rather cool images and remember … lots of the JWST data is publicly available to everyone!
JWST/STScI/JR Rigby
NIRCAM/F277W