James Webb photographs a ‘fiery’ galaxy with a violent past

Astronomers operating the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) last week released a new image of the galaxy NGC 3256 obtained with their mid-infrared instrument. NGC 3256 is a spiral galaxy, the size of the Milky Way, located about 120 million light years away, in the constellation of Vela. The image, obtained at infrared and near-infrared wavelengths, revealed evidence of its violent past.

Scientists estimate that this distorted galaxy is the aftermath of a head-on collision and merger between two equally massive spiral galaxies that occurred about 500 million years ago. The galaxies intermingled their interstellar dust and clouds, resulting in a continuous luminous burst of star formation that is now captured in astonishing detail by JWST in the brightest parts of this image.

NGC 3256’s violent past is evident in the long tendrils of bright dust and stars that extend from the galaxy’s main body. The striking red and orange regions spread across the galaxy contain young stars created in stellar mergers. These young stars radiate small grains of dust that then emit infrared light that can penetrate through the dust obscuring the galaxy. Webb’s instruments managed to capture this intense glow with absolute clarity. With RT

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