Let’s Build a Galaxy

Our solar system is one of billions inside a galaxy called the Milky Way, itself one of billions of galaxies. Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes, which also reflect their formation histories. Inside these galaxies, generations of stars form and eventually disperse their elements for the next generation. Galaxies also collide together to create new forms and shapes, like our own Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy will four billion years from now. The formation and evolution of galaxies, and their relationship with the mysterious but ubiquitous dark matter will be studied in great detail by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Production Details

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA and STScI except: 

• Visualization of the reionization era courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
• Webb telescope animation courtesy of NASA, SkyWorks Digital, Northrop Grumman, STScI
• Hubble tuning fork courtesy of Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Time Evolution video courtesy of Illustris
• Image of Anthracite courtesy of Siim Sepp

The science operations for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, developed in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, are conducted by AURA’s Space Telescope Science Institute.

Many thanks to Greg Bacon, John Godfrey, Leah Hustak, Hussein Jirdeh, Jason Kalirai, Brandon Lawton, Alexandra Lockwood, Marc Lussier, Charlie McWade, Bonnie Meinke, Roy Renza, Leah Ramsay, Denise Smith, and Frank Summers.