Let's celebrate NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's second year in science.
The telescope continues to impact the world with new discoveries, showing a new generation of scientists, explorers and dreamers that anything is possible.
As the largest telescope ever sent into space, NASA Webb has the expertise to observe infrared light, which has the ability to see the oldest galaxies in the universe, study exoplanet atmospheres, observe the beginnings of planetary systems and much more.
The second anniversary image shows two interacting galaxies, called the Penguin (NGC 2936) and the Egg (NGC 2937), entangled together in a slow cosmic dance. Webb's observations show them merging in a blue haze of stars and gas. This pair has been merging for tens of millions of years and will become a single galaxy in hundreds of millions of years.
Image description: Two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142 were observed in near and mid-infrared light. On the left is NGC 2937, nicknamed The Egg because of its appearance. Its centre is the brightest and whitest. Above it are four diffraction spikes in the shape of an X formed by its gauzy blue layers. To the right is NGC 2936, nicknamed the Penguin. Its beak-like region is orientated towards the Egg and points above it. Where the eye should be, there is a small, opaque yellow spiral. The Penguin's crooked arms form the bird's beak, back and tail. The tail is broad and layered, like the tail of a beta fish. A translucent blue colour follows the Penguin and extends from the galaxy, forming an upside-down U above both galaxies. There is another galaxy in the upper right, seen from the side and pointing at roughly a 45-degree angle. It is largely light blue. Its length appears to be approximately the height of the Egg. A foreground star with a large, bright blue diffraction spike is above the galaxy, with another one close by. The entire background is filled with small, extremely distant galaxies. The background of space is black.
Does it look like a penguin to you?
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