Merging galaxies shine with the light of a trillion suns in gorgeous James Webb Space Telescope photo

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured this image of the merging galaxies known as Arp 220. The object lies about 250 million light-years from Earth.  (Image credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

We won't be around to watch our Milky Way galaxy fuse with its closest neighbor, Andromeda, a few billion years from now. But we're getting a spectacular front-row seat to another galactic merger, thanks to NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb).

A newly released JWST photo captures two galaxies collectively called Arp 220, which are now merging 250 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens (the Serpent).