The Fishhook. The Thin One. These are just two of the striking targets revealed in new detail by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. In July 2022 Webb observed El Gordo, a galaxy cluster that existed 6.2 billion years after the big bang. It was selected as the most massive galaxy cluster known at that time in cosmic history.

Galaxy clusters are the heavyweights of astronomy. They have the power to bend and magnify light from more distant objects, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing that was predicted by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago. Webb’s infrared image of El Gordo displays a variety of unusual, distorted background galaxies. It also has fueled several new scientific discoveries.