Mr. Colbert

ALT A map of the continental United States, depicting where the annular solar eclipse of 2023 can be seen. A thick gray line with orange circles stretches from Oregon to Texas, depicting where and when the "ring of fire" can be seen; thinner lines parallel to it show where a partial solar eclipse will be visible. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

ALT The background of space is black. Thousands of galaxies appear all across the view. Their shapes and colors vary. Some are various shades of orange, others are white. Most stars appear blue, and are sometimes as large as more distant galaxies that appear next to them. A very bright star is just above and left of center. It has eight bright blue, long diffraction spikes. Between 4 o’clock and 6 o’clock in its spikes are several very bright galaxies. A group of three are in the middle, and two are closer to 4 o’clock. These galaxies are part of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, and they are warping the appearances of galaxies seen around them. Long orange arcs appear at left and right toward the center.