Stephan's Quintet is a group of five galaxies, four of which (on the right) are about 90 million parsecs from Earth. The topmost galaxy, NGC 7319, harbours a supermassive black hole that is pulling in stellar material around it.Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI The views of the Universe just keep getting better. NASA's US$10-billion James Webb Space Telescope released four new scientific images on 12 July, including newborn stars sparkling through dramatic 'cliffs' of gas, and galaxies interacting in an intricate cosmic dance. A day earlier, astronomers had marveled at its very first image, a mind-boggling deep dive into the distant Universe. Webb observes the cosmos in infrared wavelengths, which gives it a different view than many other observatories, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb's 6.5-metre-wide mirror is the largest ever launched into space, and the combination of the large mirror and its infrared detection capabilities allow Webb an unprecedented view of many...
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