Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

James Webb captures a stunning image of two galaxies merging

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a gorgeous image of a dramatic cosmic event: two galaxies colliding. The two spiral galaxies are in the process of merging, and are glowing brightly in the infrared wavelength in which James Webb operates, shining with the light of more than a trillion suns.

It is not uncommon for two (or more) galaxies to collide and merge, but the two pictured in this image are giving off particularly bright infrared light. The pair has a combined name, Arp 220, as they appear as a single object when viewed from Earth. Known as an ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG), Arp 220 glows far more brightly than a typical spiral galaxy like our Milky Way.

Shining like a brilliant beacon amidst a sea of galaxies, Arp 220 lights up the night sky in this view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Actually two spiral galaxies in the process of merging, Arp 220 glows brightest in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb. It is an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a luminosity of more than a trillion suns. In comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a much more modest luminosity of about ten billion suns.
Shining like a brilliant beacon amid a sea of galaxies, Arp 220 lights up the night sky in this view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Actually two spiral galaxies in the process of merging, Arp 220 glows brightest in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb. It is an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a luminosity of more than a trillion suns. In comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a much more modest luminosity of about 10 billion suns. IMAGE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Arp 220 is located 250 million light-years away, but its bright glow means that Webb was able to capture the object using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). By combing data from these two instruments, scientists are able to see the object in both the near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths.

Recommended Videos

While the process of galaxies colliding can be destructive, it can also create many new stars — as it has in this case. “The collision of the two spiral galaxies began about 700 million years ago,” Webb scientists write. “It sparked an enormous burst of star formation. About 200 huge star clusters reside in a packed, dusty region about 5,000 light-years across (about 5 percent of the Milky Way’s diameter). The amount of gas in this tiny region is equal to all of the gas in the entire Milky Way galaxy.”

Arp 220 was previously imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008. Comparing the two images shows not only the differences when observing in different wavelengths, as Hubble looks in the visible light portion of the spectrum compared to Webb’s infrared, but it also shows how much more detail is visible thanks to advances in technology over the last 15 years.

Another difference is in the distinctive diffraction spikes that are a signature of a James Webb image: the six-pointed star shape is caused by the telescope’s hexagonal primary mirror.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Former Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Topics
Space is becoming Bezos and Musk’s next data center site, and we have every reason to worry
The AI boom is coming for the night sky
How Vast's space station will look in orbit.

AI data centers already consume vast amounts of electricity and water on Earth, so Silicon Valley has begun looking somewhere considerably more spacious... literally.

Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, along with several other companies, have proposed enormous constellations of satellites designed to operate as orbital data centers. However, environmental groups and former space officials are now warning that putting them into orbit at the proposed scale could have severe consequences for Earth's atmosphere and the night sky.

Read more
The first possible exomoon is here, and it makes our Moon look hilariously tiny
Scientists may have found the first exomoon, except this one is the size of Jupiter
This artist’s concept depicts a potential volcanic moon between the exoplanet WASP-49 b, left, and its parent star. New evidence indicating that a massive sodium cloud observed near WASP-49 b is produced by neither the planet nor the star has prompted researchers to ask if its origin could be an exomoon.

We have already discovered more than 6,000 planets outside of our immediate neighborhood. Yet, finding a moon orbiting one of those distant worlds has proved considerably harder. Astronomers may finally have something close to the real deal, but this particular object stretches the word “moon” almost beyond recognition.

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, researchers detected strong evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Further observations are still necessary to confirm the discovery, but it could become the first confidently detected natural satellite outside our solar system. There is still one tiny complication though. This moon is apparently massive.

Read more
China’s answer to SpaceX’s reusable rockets literally catches boosters in a net
SpaceX catches boosters on legs. China just used a net.
Ammunition, Missile, Weapon

SpaceX's playbook for recovering a rocket booster generally involves legs, a precisely controlled vertical landing, and either a concrete pad or a drone ship. 

China just managed to pull off something similar, but in a slightly different way, and on July 10, it tested the method as well.

Read more