22 | EXPLORE WINTER 2023 Stephan’s Quintet may sound familiar from its role in the 1946 holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life, but NASA’s Webb telescope reveals the five galaxies in a new light. This galactic mosaic, constructed from almost one thousand separate images, is Webb’s largest image to date, containing more than 150 million pixels. Never-before-seen details of young stars, regions of active star formation, and sweeping tails of gas and dust help us to understand galactic activity during gravitational collisions. A shocking bonus: Webb captured an enormous shock wave as galaxy NGC 7318B slams through the cluster. According to Anderson, these images are just the beginning. “I was blown away by the first set of images, and I can’t wait to see more,” he says. “I think there’s a lot of potential here to increase public interest in astronomy.” Museum visitors now have the chance to catch up on the latest astronomy news in the Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium, which reopened to the public on December 7. The refurbished planetarium features an upgraded software system (Digistar 7) to improve visual quality, additional seating capacity, and a repainted interior. Most important, the Museum’s astronomy team has been hard at work developing curricula highlighting NASA’s Webb Telescope. The new planetarium program Unfolding the Universe takes viewers on a deep dive into Webb’s technology and unveils its latest images in stunning, large-scale detail. Museum guests will have a front-row seat as astronomers zoom out to some of the most distant galaxies ever observed, uncover the dramatic birth and death of stars, and explore atmospheres of intriguing alien worlds. Building on the legacy of NASA’s previous space-based telescopes, Webb is expected to advance the boundaries of human knowledge. Join the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in welcoming a new era of astronomy. “I was blown away by the first set of images, and I can’t wait to see more.” —Nick Anderson Photo credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Photo credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Below: James Webb Space Telescope's Stephan's Quintet Left: James Webb Space Telescope construction
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