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STScI

Cassiopeia A is the remnant of a once massive star that died in a violent supernova explosion 325 years ago. It consists of a dead star, called a neutron star, and a surrounding shell of material that was blasted off as the star died. This image is a composite using three NASA observatories in three different wavelengths of light: infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (red), visible data from Hubble (yellow), and x-ray data from Chandra (green and blue).

Tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars were previously shrouded in the cosmic dust of the Tarantula Nebula. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can penetrate through the dust clouds to see the stars due to its unprecedented resolution in infrared wavelengths. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive, pale blue stars. Scattered among them are newly formed stars, appearing red, yet to emerge from the dusty cocoon of the nebula.

Image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, left, compared to the James Webb Space Telescope's.

This Hubble Space Telescope snapshot reveals the unusual galaxy DF2, which sits about 72 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers have been puzzled by the fact that DF2 lacks dark matter, the invisible glue that holds galaxies together.