JWST Captures Farthest Gravitational Lens in Stunning Detail

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured images of the farthest-ever Einstein ring, a halo of warped light located 21 billion light-years away. This record-breaking discovery surrounds a dense galaxy and is the most distant gravitationally lensed object ever observed. Gravitational lensing occurs when the gravity of a massive foreground object warps space-time, causing light from more distant objects to appear curved. The complete Einstein ring, named JWST-ER1, was found within the COSMOS-Web survey and consists of a compact galaxy acting as the lensing object and a more distant galaxy forming the luminous ring. The lensing galaxy's unusually high mass suggests the presence of dark matter, but additional mass is still unexplained. Further research is needed to understand the nature of these ancient, dense galaxies.