NASA released a new image on Wednesday of a massive galaxy cluster with other distant galaxies in the background.
"El Gordo" -- Spanish for "the fat one" -- has existed since the universe was 6.2 billion years old. The biggest galaxy cluster of its time, El Gordo serves as a "natural, cosmic magnifying glass" that allowed NASA to view background galaxies with greater clarity.
“Lensing by El Gordo boosts the brightness and magnifies the sizes of distant galaxies," Brenda Frye of the University of Arizona and a lead author of a paper analyzing the El Gordo observations said. "This lensing effect provides a unique window into the distant universe."
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured the infrared image, giving observers a glimpse of galaxies that were only hinted at in images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
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La Flaca -- Spanish for "the thin one" -- and El Anzuelo -- Spanish for "the fishhook" -- are among the visible galaxies in the image. El Anzuelo is about a quarter the size of the Milky Way, and its light took 10.6 billion years to reach Earth.
"We were able to carefully dissect the shroud of dust that envelops the galaxy center where stars are actively forming," Patrick Kamieneski of Arizona State University and lead author on a second paper said. "Now, with Webb, we can peer through this thick curtain of dust with ease, allowing us to see firsthand the assembly of galaxies from the inside out."
Among the other observations from the image include five "multiply lensed galaxies" that appear to be a smaller galaxy cluster formed over 12 billion years ago.
