James Webb Telescope photo shows stunning Einstein ring 12 billion lightyears from Earth

NASA released the first fullcolor images of our universe from James Webb in July. Since then, the space telescope has captured evidence of a supernova, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, and now James Webb has captured an image of a beautiful Einstein ring.

NASA’s James Webb Telescope captured this image of an impressive Einstein ring

The image was created using data captured by James Webb’s MIRI detector. It was also observed using the telescope’s NIRCam detector. The image was colored by Redditor u/Spaceguy44, who previously colored another image of James Webb. The image of Einstein’s ring is remarkable because this type of event does not happen every day.

An Einstein ring is essentially when light from a galaxy or star passes through another galaxy or massive object on its way to Earth. As the large object’s gravity bends the light, it creates gravitational lensing. This creates a ring life effect, making the light from the galaxy look like an almost perfect ring. In this new image, James Webb has captured the galaxy SPTS J0418394751.8.

The light from SPTS J0418394751.8 looks like an Einstein ring due to a foreground galaxy that has bent its light. So this new James Webb image of an Einstein ring isn’t actually the galaxy that’s creating the light. Instead, we simply see the light from this galaxy as it bends around the foreground galaxy.

Still, the image itself is stunning. Spaceguy44 created the image using data downloaded from the Space Telescope Science Institute archives. The Einstein ring captured by James Webb is about 12 billion lightyears from Earth. To colorize the image, Spaceguy44 says they used a set of filters, which they also posted on their original Reddit post.

James Webb remains one of the most powerful observational instruments mankind has ever created. With it, we can not only look at the early universe but also detect carbon dioxide on distant planets. With tools like this, the next era of space exploration has a chance to unravel some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.