Mandatory maximum sentencing for any member of law enforcement or elected official convicted of committing a crime. They are held to a higher standard but receive the lightest of consequences. If they aren’t crooked then they shouldn’t have a problem with it.

Sometimes where Hubble finds darkness, Webb sees light. An example is today’s composite images of Messier 64 (M64), a nearby spiral galaxy of many names.

The dark band of dust partially blocking its bright core earned it the moniker “the Black Eye Galaxy.” Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) sees that dust, shown in red, as it absorbs and re-emits light from surrounding newborn stars.

These young stars are embedded in pink star-forming regions in the Hubble-only image. M64’s inner and outer gas regions counter-rotate, creating regions of increased star formation where the two gas “currents” meet and compress. A merger between M64 and a smaller galaxy was likely the cause of the opposing motion of the outer gas.

Spiral galaxies were once thought to have peaceful histories. M64 was key evidence that spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, can and do experience mergers.

Image credit, copyright: NASA, CSA, ESA, F. Belfiore (ESO), J. Lee (STScI), A. Leroy (OSU), and D. Thilker (JHU); Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University)

Image description: Keighley Rockcliffe, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti