Galaxy cluster MACS J1423 (NIRCam image)

Thousands of glimmering galaxies are bound together by their own gravity, making up a massive cluster formally classified as MACS J1423.

The largest bright white oval is a supergiant elliptical galaxy that is the dominant member of this galaxy cluster. The galaxy cluster acts like a lens, magnifying and distorting the light from objects that lie well behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing that has big research benefits. Astronomers can study lensed galaxies in detail, like the Firefly Sparkle galaxy.

This 2023 image is from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera). Researchers used Webb to survey the same field that the Hubble Space Telescope imaged in 2010. Thanks to its specialisation in high-resolution near-infrared imagery, Webb was able to show researchers many more galaxies in far more detail.

[Image description: Thousands of overlapping objects at various distances are spread across this field, including galaxies in a massive galaxy cluster, and distorted background galaxies behind the galaxy cluster. The background of space is black.]