"Stunning Views: Webb Captures Spiral Galaxies and Star Forming Complexes"

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured highly detailed images of 19 nearby spiral galaxies as part of the PHANGS program, revealing stunning structures and providing new insights into star formation. The images, taken in near- and mid-infrared light, show millions of stars, glowing dust, star clusters, and large spherical shells in the galaxies. These observations shed light on the distribution of gas and dust, the life cycles of stars, and the presence of active supermassive black holes in galaxy cores. The release of these images and a catalog of roughly 100,000 star clusters will enable extensive research and analysis by the scientific community.