NASA released a James Webb Space Telescope image on Sept. 29, 2026, showing galaxies that appear warped and multiplied like reflections in a house of mirrors. The golden galaxies in the view belong to a galaxy cluster called MACS J0454.1-0300.

The orange galaxies bunched together on one side of the image are not part of the cluster, according to NASA. They lie much farther away, and their light has been bent and magnified by gravitational lensing — the effect produced when the enormous mass of a foreground object such as a galaxy cluster distorts light from a more distant object behind it.

The image is credited to ESA/Webb, NASA and CSA, along with L. Furtak and S. Fujimoto. NASA's image article points readers to further information about the cluster.