Nineteen spiral galaxies, their planes facing us. The images were obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope in near- and mid-infrared wavelengths.
The Webb Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured millions of stars in these images. The light from older stars appears blue here, concentrated in the galactic nuclei (in visible light, the opposite is usually true—younger stars are blue). Observations from the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) highlight the glowing dust, revealing where it is located around and between the stars—it appears in shades of red and orange. Stars that are not yet fully formed and are shrouded in gas and dust appear bright red.
Another interesting detail: pink-red diffraction spikes can be seen in the centers of some galaxies. These are signs that active supermassive black holes or dense central star clusters may be located at the centers of these galaxies.