Telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope can observe some incredibly distant galaxies, stretching all the way back to the early universe. However, spotting individual stars in distant galaxies is tricky even for Webb and its massive primary mirror.

It has been just over three years since JWST was launched into space and in that time, the telescope has dramatically expanded our understanding of the distant universe. Among the important findings is the discovery of very young galaxies that already looked like their more senior counterparts in the local universe,

The James Webb Space Telescope captured images of 44 individual stars in a gorgeous portrait of a distant galaxy.

The cutting-edge observatory is charged with seeing some of the earliest visible light, and the recent image achieves a new milestone in stellar astronomy.