James Webb Space Telescope Snaps Image of Two Galaxies Merging
The galaxies reside about 270 million light years away, and the ensuing merger is generating a burst of star growth.
By Michael Kan
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently snapped an image of two far-off galaxies merging into one. The image captures “IC 1623,” two galaxies that reside over 270 million light years away and have entered the final stage of their merger.
The ongoing collision is also causing a “frenzied spate of star formation known as a starburst” from the pileup of stellar gasses, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). As a result, IC 1623 is generating stars at a rate 20 times more than our own Milky Way galaxy.
“The ongoing, extreme starburst causes intense infrared emission, and the merging galaxies may well be in the process of forming a supermassive black hole,” the ESA says.
The Hubble Space Telescope has also recorded images of IC 1623. But the James Webb Space Telescope possesses more powerful infrared sensors, enabling it to capture the star formation occurring within the galactic dust clouds to a greater degree.
To demonstrate the difference, the ESA released a split-screen comparison of IC 1623 taken with Hubble and compared against James Webb. As you can see, the newer telescope offers a more detailed view of the numerous stars being born, especially at the central region where the two galaxies are colliding.
“A thick band of dust has blocked these valuable insights from the view of telescopes like Hubble. However, Webb’s infrared sensitivity and its impressive resolution at those wavelengths allows it to see past the dust and has resulted in the spectacular image above, a combination of MIRI (mid-infrared) and NIRCam (near-infrared) imagery,” the ESA adds.
The space agency also noted that the core of the merging collision is so bright a snowflake-like diffraction spike occurs on the image.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
