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Webb's 223-megapixel portrait of the Cigar Galaxy took 65 hours to capture
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope imaged 16.5 million stars in the Cigar Galaxy, 12 million light-years away, in a 223-megapixel composite.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spent 65 hours imaging the Cigar Galaxy, producing a 223-megapixel portrait that resolves 16.5 million individual stars. The galaxy lies 12 million light-years from Earth.
Webb's NIRCam instrument enabled star-level resolution across the dense, distant galactic structure. Astronomers now have a sweeping, detailed view of the galaxy's entire stellar population in a single frame.
Why it mattersWebb's ability to resolve millions of individual stars within a distant galaxy demonstrates a new level of infrared telescope capability for deep-sky science.
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