KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The world's biggest and most powerful space telescope celebrated its second anniversary on Friday, and to celebrate, the world got a new glimpse at the stars and planets that make up the universe.
NASA released a new photo of two interacting galaxies, colliding into each other. The administration released a near-infrared and mid-infrared image, combining data from two of the James Webb Space Telescope's instruments to reveal a moment of interstellar wonder. The telescope specializes in capturing types of infrared light, a wavelength that's beyond visible light.
The new image shows a distorted spiral galaxy near the center, called the Penguin. Another galaxy, the Egg, is towards the left of the image and is a compact elliptical.
"The new anniversary image, you get a sense of motion of the thing evolving. What's happening is, we have two galaxies that are dancing around each other in this gravitational spiral. What's actually happening is the redder galaxy is getting twisted and distorted by the gravity of the other galaxy," said Jane Rigby, a senior scientist for the telescope.
NASA said the telescope has already led to tons of discoveries. It has also led to the creation of stunning images of outer space that inspire people to gaze up into the sky and take in starry nights, wondering about the future.
"In 20 years, oh gosh, I want us to build a telescope. And, we've gotten started on it — the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which will tell us whether we are alone. Webb can look at planets, whether they might be habitable, they might have liquid water. We want to build a telescope that could tell us whether they have life, whether they are inhabited," said Rigby.
