Webb spotlights gravitational arcs in ‘El Gordo’ galaxy cluster (NIRCam image)

Webb’s infrared image of the galaxy cluster El Gordo (“the Fat One”) reveals hundreds of galaxies, some never before seen at this level of detail. El Gordo acts as a gravitational lens, distorting and magnifying the light from distant background galaxies. Two of the most prominent features in the image include the Thin One, highlighted in box A, and the Fishhook, a red swoosh highlighted in box B. Both are lensed background galaxies. The insets at right show zoomed-in views of both objects.

[Image description: The left two-thirds of the frame shows a field of small galaxies on a black background. Near the center of the image, a long, thin line is outlined with a white box and labeled A. At upper right, a red swoosh nearly encircling two galaxies is outlined with a white box and labeled B. The right third of the frame shows zoomed in views of the two regions in the boxes. At top in box A, a thin mottled line extends from upper left to lower right with a handful of background objects. At bottom in box B, a red swoosh wraps around from upper left to lower right, nearly encircling two small galaxies located at one o’clock and seven o’clock.]

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