1. SMACS 0723
This is “the most clear and full infrared image of the distant universe ever produced.” It shows deep space is teeming with galaxies. It’s not possible to capture infrared images like this on earth, because there’s too much heat interference.
2. The Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132)
This image by the Webb telescope shows more detail than previous images from Hubble. It’s about 2,500 light years away.
3. Stephan’s quintet
This distant galaxy group, 290 million light years away, has been known to astronomers since 1877, but “this new image is considered to be especially significant because it shows the type of interaction that drives the evolution of galaxies and can be the mechanisms for galaxies’ growth.”
4. Carina Nebula
In the Milky Way, 7,500 light years from Earth, this nebula “has beguiled scientists for generations.” The new image “reveals, with unprecedented clarity, individual stars and emerging stellar nurseries that had not previously been seen.”
5. WASP-96 b (spectrum)
This isn’t an image, per se, but rather measurements to determine what’s in the atmosphere of a gas planet similar to Jupiter (larger in diameter, but smaller in mass) orbiting a star about 1,120 light-years away.