James Web first light - gravitational lensing is off the HOOK!

[Uilleann]

Holy. Crap.

Massive amounts of lensing in this single, small frame - to say nothing about all the extremely redshifted (and by extension distant) galaxies! Amazing work NASA!!

[Zilla]

People don't realize, this is optics at work! This is what we do, what we know, used on such a grand scale. So amazing.

[drk]

The fact that those are galaxies is incomprehensible. There is a lot of matter out there.

[Uilleann]

People don't realize, this is optics at work! This is what we do, what we know, used on such a grand scale. So amazing.

Insane, right? Many of these galaxies wouldn't even be visible without the lensing of the massive foreground distortions from the large galaxy clusters in front.

The fact that those are galaxies is incomprehensible. There is a lot of matter out there.

It's all melting my mind (even after working in the education dept of our local Planetarium for a decade)! This field is about the same size as a grain of sand held at arm's length in your fingers (at least that's the description I keep seeing). That small an area is hard to comprehend - and yet there is SO MUCH in that tiny area of sky!!

[drk]

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

[Uilleann]

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

Mind continues to explode with all the data! What we're seeing is...I just try to think what Galileo would feel if he could see these images now. Just WOW WOW WOW!!!!