NASA's Webb Telescope has captured a stunning picture of a young star system about 1,470 light-years away, called Herbig-Haro 46/47, consisting of two newborn stars caught in a tight embrace as they spin around each other.
But if you zoom in far enough toward the bottom center of the stunning infrared picture, you can see a tiny celestial object shaped almost exactly like a question mark, as if puzzling out of its existence.
And fittingly, we're still not entirely sure what that glowing orange symbol actually is. Luckily, Space.com reached out to some experts to get a better idea about it.
Representatives from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages the telescope's science operations, told the outlet, "It's likely a distant galaxy, or possibly interacting galaxies ( probably, their interactions causing the distorted question mark-shape)."
Since it appears red in observation, it is quite distant according to the institute.
"This is probably the first time we have seen this particular object," officials said. "Additional follow-up will be needed to find out with any certainty. James Webb Space Telescope is showing us many new, distant galaxies – so there is a lot of new science to be done!"
Matt Caplan, assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University, goes a step further, telling Space.com that it "could easily be merging galaxies in the background, with the upper part of the question mark being part of a larger galaxy that is tidally disrupted."
"Given the color of some of the other background galaxies, this doesn't seem like the worst explanation," he said.
"Despite of how chaotic the mergers are, dual-lobed objects with curvy tails extending far from them are very distinctive."
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