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Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
CosmicRami@aus.social wrote:

Whooooaaaa! The new #JWST image is so good! So much physics going on — physics Einstein himself thought about!

This is called an Einstein Ring. When a massive foreground galaxy (in this case, an elliptical galaxy) warps the space-time around it, light from behind it bends in our direction.

The JWST caught this fantastic example, where the background spiral galaxy is getting warped into our view. It appears as a ring, but we can see its structures like its spiral arms, gas features and star clusters.

Incredible science happening here!

📸 ESA/Webb/NASA/CSA/G. Mahler

I added the annotations in the second image.

#astronomy #astrophysics #generalrelativity #galaxies #science #gravitationallens #Astrodon

In the centre is an elliptical galaxy, seen as an oval-shaped glow around a small bright core. Around this is wrapped a broad band of light, appearing like a spiral galaxy stretched and warped into a ring, with bright blue lines drawn through it where the spiral arms have been stretched into circles. A few distant objects are visible around the ring on a black background.
In the centre is an elliptical galaxy, seen as an oval-shaped glow around a small bright core. Around this is wrapped a broad band of light, appearing like a spiral galaxy stretched and warped into a ring, with bright blue lines drawn through it where the spiral arms have been stretched into circles. A few distant objects are visible around the ring on a black background. The image has been annotated to point out the foreground galaxy as well as the background spiral.