NASA has released more images of galaxies thousands of light years away, captured by their James Webb Space Telescope.
And it prompted a whole lot of questions: Will we find new planets? What would you see from inside one of these galaxies? How big are these pictures really?
In a bid to unpack the latest discoveries in our cosmos, we asked you to put your burning questions to the experts.
Here's a bit of what we learned (you can catch up on the full Q&A here):
These galaxies don't look like this anymore... and might not even exist
"If the images are billions of years old, could you presume that some of the 'bodies' we are seeing aren't there now? May look like a lot of stars but the images of long ago, if you know what I mean. What is really there now."
- Nigel
Astrophysicist Robin Cook from the University of Western Australia says "absolutely".
"As astronomers we are actually acting as big historians — the further we peer into the universe, the further back in time we look.
"That’s because light takes time to travel between the object and us, meaning that the light we are seeing from these colliding galaxies came from them 290 million years ago, so we are looking that far into the past.
"I have no doubts this system would look completely different to the inhabitants of planets around the stars in these galaxies."
There's a chance Webb could find 'rogue worlds'
"Is Webb capable of detecting planets orbiting stars in nearby galaxies?"
- Ken
Jonti Horner, an astrobiologist and astronomer based at the University of Southern Queensland, says it's unlikely Webb will find planets in other galaxies, but there is a chance it could detect "'free floating planets' or 'rogue worlds' between the stars".
"Because that's really hard. But the main thing is that Webb won't be looking to find new planets (to do that would require us exoplanet astronomers to hog all of its time, and that isn't going to happen!), but rather will be studying known planets to learn more about them.
"It's just not set up to discover new planets (though there is always a chance it may find some by chance — particularly 'free floating planets' or 'rogue worlds' between the stars).
"So JWST will teach us a huge amount about exoplanets — but it isn't going to be a good tool for finding them, and any it does find (by chance) will likely be in our own backyard.
"But having said all that, the only prediction you can ever make that is accurate is that all predictions will prove wrong in the end — so I'd say watch this space, just in case JWST proves me wrong."
If you lived in this photo, you'd be 'pummelled by radiation'
"What would space look like from inside the nebula of the cosmic cliffs? Would it look red and ‘gassy’, or is it the perspective from our view that makes it look like that because it’s viewed from afar?"
- Pip
Astronomer Kim-Vy Tran from UNSW says if we were in the nebula, we would see the universe through a cloud of gas, like a lighthouse in the middle of fog.
"If you happened to be near one of the really big and very hottest stars, you would be pummelled by radiation that is like a UV index of a gazillion!"
So, probably not a place to move to any time soon.
Stephan's Quintet would make for 'great night-time viewing'
"What would it feel like to be living on a planet in one of the galaxies in Stephan's Quintet? Would everything be turbulent or would it mostly be just great night time viewing?"
- Reader
Astronomer Kim Vy-Tran says it could make for great night-time viewing, especially if you had infrared eyes.
"With these galaxies spread across the sky, it would be patchy light and dark regions just like when we’re looking at different parts of our own Milky Way.
"If we look towards the centre of our galaxy, we wouldn’t see much using visible light because of all the dust, but you can see through the dust with infrared light.
"If you’re looking away from the galaxy where there’s not as many stars and dust, you’d have a more 'regular' view but still full of stars."
You can tell how old a star is by its colour
Some readers were curious about this picture of Stephan's Quintet, which is actually giving us a 290 million-year-old view.
Astronomer Robin Cook from the University of Western Australia says "we know, from looking at the stars in our own galaxy, that their colours mark very distinct points across their life spans".
"A blue star is very young and hot, using up its fuel very quickly. A red star, perhaps counterintuitively, is relatively cooler and marks the later stages of a star's life.
"By collecting all the light from stars in these galaxies, we can generally directly link the colours seen for the galaxy with an average age for the system, which happens to be 290 million years old in this example — a relatively short timescale in the grand scheme of the cosmos."
How does the telescope capture and illustrate colours?
"As there is blue in the images, has the colour range been adjusted?"
- Dave Jones.
The ABC's senior science reporter Genelle Weule says the images have been taken in infrared light.
"That's very long light beyond what we can see.
"But the team have used blue, green and red filters to translate the infrared wavelengths into colours.
"It's like translating what you would see if you had infrared eyes into colours you recognise."
Where is the James Webb Telescope now?
Launched in December 2021 from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, Webb is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 1.6 million kilometres from Earth, in a region of space called the second Lagrange point.
According to NASA, Lagrange points are positions in space where objects sent there tend to stay put.
At Lagrange points, the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.
These points in space can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
The L2 point of the Earth-Sun system was the home to the WMAP spacecraft and now home of the James Webb Space Telescope.
L2 is ideal for astronomy because a spacecraft is close enough to readily communicate with Earth, can keep Sun, Earth and Moon behind the spacecraft for solar power and (with appropriate shielding) provides a clear view of deep space for our telescopes.
What happens to the Hubble Telescope?
NASA anticipates that Hubble will last for many more years and will continue making groundbreaking observations, working in tandem with other space observatories including the James Webb Space Telescope to further our knowledge of the cosmos.
NASA has also made it clear that Webb is not a replacement for Hubble, but instead its successor.
Here's how NASA explains their differences:
This is the other reason that Webb is not a replacement for Hubble; its capabilities are not identical. Webb will primarily look at the universe in the infrared, while Hubble studies it primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths (though it has some infrared capability). Webb also has a much bigger mirror than Hubble. This larger light collecting area means that Webb can peer farther back into time than Hubble is capable of doing. Hubble is in a very close orbit around the earth, while Webb will be 1.5 million kilometres away at the second Lagrange (L2) point.
