Merging Galaxy Pair IIZw096 [apod.nasa.gov]
Bright at infrared wavelengths, this merging galaxy pair is some 500 million light-years away toward the constellation Delphinus.
The cosmic mashup is seen against a background of even more distant galaxies, and occasional spiky foreground stars.
But the galaxy merger itself spans about 100,000 light-years in this deep James Webb Space Telescope image.
The image data is from Webb's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).
Their combined, sharp infrared view follows galactic scale restructuring in the dusty merger's wild jumble of intense star forming regions and distorted spiral arms
