Here are some of the most spectacular images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during the year.
Clouds and cliffs
The ionising radiation being blasted from the stars above them is shaping the billowing orange clouds of gas and dust. In the dusty clouds, where new stars are forming, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals 3D details like the pillars and jets.
Additionally, the telescope peered through the obscuring clouds to reveal the distant galaxies and individual stars.
Pillars of creation
The dust that still surrounds them has changed the colours of the reddish stars that can be seen at the ends of several pillars. Bluish stars that are embedded within the clouds are those whose encasing dust has been largely blown off.
The location is in the constellation Serpens, 2,000 parsecs away from Earth.
Ringed planet
Dust bands glow close to Neptune, and the planet is encircled by a number of thin, bright rings. The infrared view from the telescope revealed details like brightness near the planet's north pole and clouds encircling its southern polar vortex.
Near Neptune and its rings, there are six additional moons visible.
Distant galaxies
The faint red galaxy is one of the contenders for the farthest galaxy ever observed, a feat made only possible by JWST's capacity to observe light from the far-off Universe that has been bent into far-red wavelengths by cosmic expansion.
We can observe the galaxy as it was only 450 million years after the Big Bang.
Cosmic cartwheel
When a small galaxy collided with a large spiral galaxy, its structure was altered, creating this strange, glowing shape. Much of the dust that typically obscures the details could be seen thanks to JWST's infrared vision. Particularly in the spokes and outer ring, young stars appear as blue dots.
The colour red denotes regions abundant in hydrocarbons and other substances.
The most potent space telescope ever created, Webb has been in operation since July and has already released an abundance of unheard-of data. The hope is that it will usher in a new era of discovery.
