NASA on Friday released two images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope showing two galaxies – one called the Penguin and the other the Egg – in the process of merging into each other in a cosmic dance, as the US space agency marks two years since the observatory’s first scientific results were unveiled.
Webb, which was launched in 2021 and began collecting data the following year, has reshaped the understanding of the early universe by taking stunning pictures of the cosmos. The two galaxies shown in the pictures are located in the constellation Hydra, 326 million light-years from Earth. A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
“We see two galaxies, each containing billions of stars. These galaxies are in the process of merging,” said Jane Rigby, senior project scientist for NASA Webb. “This is a normal way that galaxies like ours form over time, with small galaxies — like the ones Webb discovered shortly after the Big Bang — growing into mature galaxies like our own Milky Way.”
Photo courtesy: Reuters
Since becoming operational, Webb has observed star-studded galaxies that were formed within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang event, which marked the beginning of the universe about 13.8 billion years ago.
The merging Penguin and Egg galaxies are collectively known as Arp 142. The image shows them surrounded by a haze, a mixture of stars and gas formed during a slow merger.
The Penguin Galaxy, so named because from a telescopic perspective its shape resembles that of a flightless bird, including a beak-like region, is formally called NGC 2936. It is a spiral-shaped galaxy, now slightly distorted. The Egg Galaxy, also named because of its shape, is formally called NGC 2937. It is a compact elliptical-shaped galaxy. Together, their appearance resembles that of a penguin guarding its egg.
According to NASA, their interaction began between 25 and 75 million years ago, and they are expected to become a single galaxy millions of years from now.
Photo Credit: Reuters
Webb has discovered the earliest known galaxies and has provided insight into areas such as the composition of planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets, and the nature of star-forming regions in the universe.
“This mission has given us the opportunity to look at the most distant galaxies ever seen and understand the very early universe in a new way,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “For example, with Webb, we’ve found that these very early galaxies are much more massive and brighter than we expected, raising the question: How did they get so big so quickly?”
Webb was designed to be more sensitive than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, which continues its work. Webb primarily observes the universe in the infrared, while Hubble has primarily probed it at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.
“Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever put into space. It specializes in capturing infrared light — wavelengths of light that are much longer than our eyes can see. With its incredible sensitivity to those wavelengths, we’re able to see deeper into the early universe than previous missions, peer through the dust and gas at the heart of star formation, and probe the composition of exoplanet atmospheres like never before,” Clampin said.
“Some of the most exciting investigations into the web will be things we haven’t even thought of yet,” Clampin added.
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