Webb Telescope – In a new image, the same galaxy appears 3 times at 3 different times in its existence

The European Space Agency (ESA) has just released the latest image of the Webb Telescope, which is also the photo of the month. The observatory turned its cameras into the depths of space towards the galaxy cluster RX J2129, which is 3.2 billion light years from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. Thanks to the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, this region acted as a huge magnifying glass, showing us a previously discovered by Hubble Space Telescope and located even further distant supernova galaxy in three different stages of its existence.

The unevenly distributed mass in the object causes the light emitted by the supernova to be bent by RX J2129 to varying degrees, taking a longer or shorter path towards Webb; the photons traveling in its direction for the longest time translated into the oldest image of the galaxy, those covering the shortest distance gave it the latest image. Magnified by the gravitational lens, the galaxy appears three times in the same image, varying in size, position in the photograph, and age. In its oldest “version” we see a supernova in it, in other places we can observe it about 320 days and 1000 days later, this time without a supernova. See for yourself:

Webb Telescope – latest image (galaxy magnified by gravitational lensing)

Interestingly, the supernova seen in the image most likely belongs to type Ia – their explosions release the most energy of all types of supernovae. All objects of this type reach a similar absolute brightness (about 19.3 magnitude), so that, after measuring the observed brightness and comparing it with the theoretical value, scientists can relatively easily calculate the distance of supernova Ia from the star and its host galaxy.