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 .
A group of five galaxies that appear close to each other in the sky : two in the middle , one toward the top , one to the upper left , and one toward the bottom . Four
of the five appear to be touching . One is somewhat separated . In the image , the galaxies are large relative to the hundreds of much smaller ( more distant ) galaxies in the background . All five galaxies have bright white cores . Each has a slightly different size , shape , structure , and coloring . Scattered across the image , in front of the galaxies are number of foreground stars with diffraction spikes : bright white points , each with eight bright lines radiating out from the center .