James Webb Space Telescope spots ring ‘sparkling’ in cosmos

By Dean Murray via SWNS

Scientists have spotted a "bejeweled ring" in space.

An incredible new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope shows a quasar sparkling in the cosmos.

Researchers were able to observe the quasar, known as RX J1131-1231, thanks to gravitational lensing.

One of the consequences of gravitational lensing is that it can magnify distant astronomical objects, letting astronomers study objects that would otherwise be too faint or far away.

RX J1131-1231, located roughly six billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Crater, is considered one of the best-lensed quasars discovered to date, as the foreground galaxy smears the image of the background quasar into a bright arc and creates four images of the object.

The European Space Agency described the quasar as a "bejeweled ring" and explained: "Gravitational lensing, first predicted by Einstein, offers a rare opportunity to study regions close to the black hole in distant quasars, by acting as a natural telescope and magnifying the light from these sources.

"All matter in the Universe warps the space around itself, with larger masses producing a stronger effect. Around very massive objects, such as galaxies, light that passes close by follows this warped space, appearing to bend away from its original path by a clearly visible amount."

This image was captured with Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) as part of an observation program to study dark matter. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the Universe's mass. Webb’s observations of quasars are allowing astronomers to probe the nature of dark matter at smaller scales than ever before.

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