The best space images from 2024

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has now been focusing its powerful eye on space for more than two years, and it marked this anniversary with a picture of two galaxies, called Arp 142, or the Penguin and the Egg (the bright light to the left of the penguin), which are fighting a drawn-out cosmic battle.

The above image, which was captured using a combination of near and mid-infrared light, shows the galaxies…