James Webb has pulled off a spectacular trick. The space telescope took a photo in which the same galaxy is depicted three times in different places.
What is known
At first glance, it may seem that James Webb has done something magical, but this happens. This happens when light from an object travels along several routes of different lengths.
The Hubble Space Telescope once saw a galaxy in which a supernova star had burst into flames. It is located behind the RX J2129 cluster, which consists of at least 13 galaxies and is 3.2 billion light-years away. Due to the uneven distribution of mass, light from objects behind the cluster arrives with a delay.
That is why, when scientists pointed the James Webb lens at RX J2129, the space telescope captured the same galaxy three times. It appeared in the photo at an interval of 320 and 1000 days after its debut appearance.
Now scientists know about the luminosity of the supernova and how it changes over time. This will allow us to bring more clarity to theories about the rate of expansion of our Universe.
