The Penguin and the Egg: See the latest images from the James Webb Telescope

ATLANTA — NASA is celebrating the two-year anniversary of the James Webb Telescope with the release of a vivid new photo.

The Webb is the most sophisticated infrared space telescope ever built.

Eric Smith, a James Webb Telescope Program Scientist, spoke with Channel 2 Action News shortly after the big reveal.

“The evidence of that we see today is this beautiful image of two interacting galaxies,” Smith said.

NASA calls the image the penguin and the egg.

The galaxies first passed each other tens of millions of years ago causing the new star formation that makes the shape of the penguin.

Scientists say the galaxies are about the same mass, which is why one hasn’t consumed the other yet.

“Through images like this, we learn about how the universe forms and builds large galaxies,” Smith said.

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The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope first started taking images in July of 2022.

Severe Weather Team 2 Chief Meteorologist Emeritus Glenn Burns visited the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville to learn how the telescope gathers images.

“So the images we see come in, bounce around this way to a primary mirror, then a secondary mirror, and they send those images and that data over to us,” astronomer Karisa Zdanky said, showing how the telescope works.

The telescope has produced amazing views of our universe. Most scientists can name a favorite.

Smith told Channel 2 Action News that his favorite was one of the Webb’s first: a Carina Nebula, sometimes called cosmic cliffs.

The image showed the stars scattered in the galaxy in the background with bright red cliffs that looked like something you’d see in the desert.

The Webb Telescope has fuel to last 25 years since its 2021 launch, giving scientists and space enthusiasts a lot to look forward to in the years to come.

You can scroll through all of the Webb images released by NASA by CLICKING HERE.

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SEE: Neptune’s rings on display in new picture from James Webb Telescope The picture shows Neptune’s hard-to-detect rings clearly. (NCD)

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