NGC 5068 (NIRCam image)

A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This view from Webb’s NIRCam instrument is studded by the galaxy’s massive population of stars, most dense along its bright central bar, along with burning red clouds of gas illuminated by young stars within. These glittering stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, located around 17 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

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[Image Description: A close-in image of a spiral galaxy, showing its core and part of a spiral arm. At this distance thousands upon thousands of tiny stars that make up the galaxy can be seen. The stars are most dense in a whitish bar that forms the core, and less dense out from that towards the arm. Bright red gas clouds follow the twist of the galaxy and the spiral arm.]