Prepare for trouble and make it double ✨⁣
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Two galaxies in the process of merging take on a chaotic shape during their fiery dance in this new image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy pair lies roughly 500 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Delphinus, close to the celestial equator. The bright cores of the two galaxies are connected by bright tendrils of star-forming regions, and the spiral arms of the lower galaxy have been twisted out of shape during the galaxy merger.⁣
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These are considered Luminous Infrared Galaxies, which as the name suggests, are particularly bright at infrared wavelengths, with luminosities more than 100 billion times that of the Sun. An international team of astronomers proposed a study of complex galactic ecosystems, such as this pair, to put Webb through its paces soon as the telescope was commissioned. Their chosen targets have already been observed with ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, which will provide astronomers with insights into Webb’s ability to unravel the details of complex galactic environments.⁣
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Webb captured this merging galaxy pair with a pair of its cutting-edge instruments: NIRCam – the Near-Infrared Camera – and MIRI, the Mid-Infrared Instrument.⁣
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Image Description: Two galaxy cores shine bright white/blue in the center, as blue/purple swirls radiate out from their centers. Longer tendrils swirl around the outer edges of the galaxy in red, like a flame. The wild swirls of the merging galaxies are surrounded by a menagerie background galaxy dotted throughout. ⁣
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Credit:ESA - European Space Agency/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans⁣
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Text credit: ESA ⁣
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