Looking halfway across the observable universe and expecting to see individual stars is considered a non-starter in astronomy, a bit like raising a pair of binoculars at the moon in hopes of making out individual grains of dust inside its craters.

There are limits to what we can see across the gulf of space and time separating us from the early Universe. Light that travels across billions of light-years emanates from sources so distant it can be challenging even to see something even as luminous as a galaxy glowing in the darkness.

Photos from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed more than 40 stars within the gravitationally lensed "Dragon Arc" galaxy, 6.5 billion light-years from Earth. It is the largest group of individually imaged stars ever seen at such a distance.

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