The Webb Space Telescope has captured two intertwined galaxies glowing in the infrared.
The observatory, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, photographed the two galaxies 326 million light-years away, surrounded by a blue haze of stars and gas. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.
The photos, released Friday, mark the second anniversary of Webb’s scientific activities.
According to NASA, the neighboring galaxies, also known as Penguin and the Egg, have been entangled for tens of millions of years.
Eventually they will merge into one galaxy.
The same interaction will occur between our own Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy in 4 billion years, the space agency said.
Webb is seen as the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope and is the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched.
The rocket was launched in 2021 and it took six months before the first official images were released in July 2022.
It is located at a distance of 1.6 million kilometers from Earth.
“In just two years, Webb has changed our view of the universe,” NASA’s Mark Clampin said in a statement.