NASA Spitzer Space Telescope contributed to the infrared component of the observations of a surprisingly large collections of galaxies red dots in center. Shorter-wavelength infrared and visible data are provided by Japan Subaru telescope.

Millions of galaxies populate the patch of sky known as the COSMOS field, short for Cosmic Evolution Survey, a portion of which is shown here. Even the smallest dots in this image are galaxies, some up to 12 billion light-years away.

The big blob-like structure shown here, named Himiko after the legendary ancient queen of Japan, turns out to be three galaxies thought to be in the process of merging into one.