Commonwealth _ NASA released a pair of images on Friday captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, showcasing two galaxies in the midst of merging, nicknamed the Penguin and the Egg. This event marks two years since the telescope began delivering its first scientific results. Launched in 2021 and operational since the following year, the James Webb Space Telescope has significantly enhanced our understanding of the early universe while providing breathtaking images of cosmic phenomena.
The two galaxies, situated 326 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra, are engaging in a cosmic ballet, slowly merging in a process that offers insights into galactic evolution. A light-year, for context, is the distance that light travels in one year, approximately 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers). Jane Rigby, NASA Webb senior project scientist, explained, “We see two galaxies, each a collection of billions of stars. The galaxies are in the process of merging. That’s a common way that galaxies like our own build up over time, to grow from small galaxies – like those that Webb has found shortly after the Big Bang – into mature galaxies like our own Milky Way.”
The mingling galaxies, collectively known as Arp 142, are presented in Webb’s imagery amid a haze of stars and gas, illustrating their gradual merger. The Penguin galaxy, formally named NGC 2936, has a spiral shape now somewhat distorted, resembling a penguin with a beak-like region from the telescope’s perspective. The Egg galaxy, NGC 2937, has a compact elliptical shape. Together, these galaxies appear as a penguin guarding its egg. Their interaction, which began between 25 and 75 million years ago, is expected to culminate in the formation of a single galaxy hundreds of millions of years from now.
Since becoming operational, the James Webb Space Telescope has observed galaxies that formed within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang, providing unprecedented insights into the early universe. Webb has also enhanced our understanding of exoplanets and star-forming regions. Mark Clampin, the astrophysics division director at NASA headquarters, noted, “This mission has allowed us to look back to the most distant galaxies ever observed and understand the very early universe in a new way. For example, with Webb, we’ve found that these very early galaxies are more massive and brighter than we expected, posing the question: How did they get so big so quickly?”
Webb’s design emphasizes its sensitivity, surpassing that of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. While Hubble primarily observes the universe in optical and ultraviolet wavelengths, Webb specializes in capturing infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light. This capability allows Webb to peer into the early universe, see through dust and gas in star-forming regions, and analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets with unprecedented clarity. Clampin highlighted, “Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever put in space. It specializes in capturing infrared light – wavelengths of light longer than our eyes can see. With its incredible sensitivity to those wavelengths, we’ve been able to look back into the early universe in a way previous missions couldn’t, see through dust and gas into the heart of star formation, and examine the composition of exoplanet atmospheres like never before.”
As Webb continues its mission, it promises to unlock more secrets of the cosmos, offering a deeper understanding of the universe’s origins and the processes that shaped it. The telescope’s ability to capture detailed images and data from the farthest reaches of space ensures that it will remain a crucial tool for astronomers and scientists for years to come.
