Zoom into "Seeing Triple": Galaxy Cluster RX J2129 | James Webb Space Telescope

Zoom into "Seeing Triple": Galaxy Cluster RX J2129 | James Webb Space Telescope

This video from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope takes the viewer on a journey through space to the location of the massive galaxy cluster RX J2129. Due to gravitational lensing, this observation contains three different images of the same supernova-hosting galaxy, which you can see in closer detail here. Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive celestial body causes a sufficient curvature of spacetime to bend the path of light travelling past or through it, almost like a vast lens. In this case, the lens is the galaxy cluster RX J2129, located around 3.2 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Kelly, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, DSS, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), E. Slawik, N. Risinger, D. de Martin (ESA/Webb), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)  

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: Feb. 28, 2023

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