The Lensing Effect

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The most distant galaxies that weve imaged so far have taken 13 billion years to get here. Light travels at a finite speed, albeit rather fast by human standards. The cluster of galaxies that's about four and a half billion light years away in the furlground is bending and magnifying the light of even more distant galaxies. So it's the lensing effect. Looking at this image, einstein would be proud, because the idea of gravitational lensing emerged from his general theory of relativity.

This week, Nasa unveiled the first images from the James Webb space telescope – much awaited pictures that show our universe in glorious technicolour. The $10bn telescope, now 1 million miles from Earth, will allow scientists to look back to the dawn of time. Prof Ray Jayawardhana, who is working with one of the instruments onboard the JWST, speaks to Ian Sample about what these images show us, and what they mean for the very human quest of discovering our place in the cosmos.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod