The James Webb Space Telescope Searches for Our Cosmic Origins
NASA's first images from the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope are revealing new discoveries about how the universe began. The mission of the James Webb Space Telescope is to study 13.5 billion years of cosmic history - from our solar system to the most distant galaxies. See the latest images from Webb with captions by NASA.
Updated Aug 2, 2022
The Cartwheel Galaxy
This image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) shows a group of galaxies, including a large distorted ring-shaped galaxy known as the Cartwheel. The Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years away in the Sculptor constellation, is composed of a bright inner ring and an active outer ring. While this outer ring has a lot of star formation, the dusty area in between reveals many stars and star clusters.