In this image by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), a smattering of hundreds of background galaxies, varying in size and shape, appear alongside the Neptune system.
<p>Neptune, when compared to Earth, is a big planet. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Neptune would be as big as a basketball. In most portraits, the outer planets of our solar system reflect this otherworldly size. However, Neptune appears relatively small in a wide-field view of the vast universe.
</p><p>Towards the bottom left of this image, a barred spiral galaxy comes into focus. Scientists say this particular galaxy, previously unexplored in detail, may be about a billion light-years away. Spiral galaxies like this are typically dominated by young stars that appear blueish in these wavelengths.
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<i>NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.</i>
<p>IMAGE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
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IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Naomi Rowe-Gurney (NASA-GSFC)
2022-09-21
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