Spiderweb protocluster is filled with baby galaxies, James Webb Space Telescope reveals (image)

Hundreds of galaxies appear in this view, which is set against the black background of space. There are many overlapping objects at various distances. They include large, blue foreground stars, some with eight diffraction spikes, and white and pink spiral and elliptical galaxies. Numerous tiny orange dots appear throughout the scene.

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to explore the strands of the Spiderweb protocluster. While the $10 billion space telescope didn't find a creepy cosmic spider at the heart of this intergalactic web, it did discover some surprises.

Those include new galaxies in this protocluster (a galaxy cluster in its early stages of formation), which contains around 100 known galaxies and is located 10 billion light-years from Earth. This means the JWST sees the Spiderweb protocluster as it was around 4 billion years after the Big Bang.