what is the use of zip(star iter)in python code example

Example: python zip function

>>> numbers = [1, 2, 3]
>>> letters = ['a', 'b', 'c']
>>> zipped = zip(numbers, letters)
>>> zipped  # Holds an iterator object
<zip object at 0x7fa4831153c8>
>>> type(zipped)
<class 'zip'>
>>> list(zipped)
[(1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c')]  #list of tuples  
# zip returns tuples