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A galactic high five from James Webb!

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Shreyoshi Guha
New Update
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observed Stephan's Quintet

On July 12, 2022, NASA released another set of images by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful observatory ever placed in orbit.

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The picture is captured in exquisite detail of Stephan’s Quintet. In the picture, you can see we see five galaxies, four of which interact. (The left galaxy is actually much closer to us than the rest of the group.) These colliding galaxies are pulling and stretching each other in a gravitational dance. Webb will revolutionize our knowledge of star formation and gas interactions within.⁣

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This mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, covering an area of the sky 1/5 of the Moon’s diameter (as seen from Earth). It contains more than 150 million pixels and is constructed from about 1,000 image files. Webb is the most complex and powerful space telescope ever built.⁣

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