Admire the beautiful penguin in the universe through the eyes of the James Webb telescope

July 12 marked two years since the first images taken by the most expensive space telescope in history, James Webb, were released. Since then, despite only being in operation for a short time, James Webb has brought back to humanity countless valuable observations, helping to discover previously unknown galaxies, surprises about the early universe, observe the atmospheres of distant planets, and create countless beautiful pictures of space.

To celebrate this milestone, scientists operating the James Webb Space Telescope have released a stunning new image showing a pair of galaxies performing an intricate cosmic dance. Together, they form a striking image reminiscent of a bright penguin against the deep cosmic sky.

The pair of galaxies, technically known as Arp 142, have been nicknamed “Penguin and the Egg” because they resemble the head and body of a penguin, along with the egg next to it. The galaxies’ enormous gravity is causing Penguin, a spiral galaxy, to warp and distort into its current shape.

All this stretching and bending creates busy star-forming regions as dust and gas collect into dense pockets. The small egg next door is an elliptical galaxy filled with older stars that are packed more densely than the relatively sparse star density in Penguin. This keeps the galaxy's shape largely unchanged.

This amazing image was created by combining data from James Webb's near- and mid-infrared instruments, using different wavelengths to observe the different processes at work. If you look just at the mid-infrared scene, taken with James Webb's MIRI instrument, you can see that some of the background galaxies (like PGC 1237172 at top right) disappear almost completely when this wavelength focuses on older stars, while the stars here are very young.

The James Webb Space Telescope is providing insights into long-standing mysteries of the early universe and ushering in a new era of study of distant worlds, returning images that inspire people around the world and raise exciting new questions to answer. It has never been easier to explore every aspect of the universe.