Would you like to go deeper? The first deep infrared image from the JWST.
OMG – it’s full of galaxies! Looking out at massive galaxy clusters 4.6 billion light years away, you can clearly see their gravitational lensing in the distorted galaxies towards the middle of the picture. The gravitational warping of space-time acts a bit like a magnifying glass, amplifying our view of even more distant galaxies behind the clusters. Those more distant galaxies are 13.2 billion light years away (close to the 13.77 billion year age of our universe!). It is essential to image in the infrared to see that far because the light from the earliest stars and galaxies stretches as it crosses through space, thanks to our ever-expanding cosmos. By the time it reaches Earth, the light has stretched into the infrared part of the spectrum.
The cross section of sky in the image was is the equivalent of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.
Full-res 30MB file directly from the Space Telescope Science Institute: https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7JJADTH90FR98AKKJFKSS0B.png

Leave a Reply