NASA’s James Webb Telescope Captures Spectacular Photo of 2 Galaxies Merging Into One

JAKARTA – NASA has just released two stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope. The photos show two galaxies, nicknamed the “Penguin” and the “Egg,” in the process of merging in a cosmic ballet.

Launched in 2021, James Webb has transformed scientists’ understanding of the early universe by capturing stunning images of the cosmos. The two galaxies in the images are located 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.

“We see two galaxies, each containing billions of stars. These galaxies are in the process of merging. That’s a common way for galaxies to evolve over time, to grow from small galaxies — like the ones Webb found shortly after the Big Bang — into mature galaxies like our own Milky Way,” said Jane Rigby, NASA Webb’s senior project scientist.

Since its launch, Webb has observed galaxies filled with stars that formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang event that marked the beginning of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago.

The interacting Penguin and Egg galaxies are collectively known as Arp 142. They are seen in the image connected by a haze of stars and gas in the midst of their slow-motion merger.

The Penguin Galaxy, so named because its shape from a telescope’s perspective resembles a flightless bird, including a beak-like region, is officially called NGC 2936. It is a spiral galaxy.

The Egg Galaxy, also named for its egg-like shape. Officially called NGC 2937. It is a compact elliptical galaxy. Both are reminiscent of penguins guarding their eggs.

“This mission allows us to look back at the most distant galaxies ever observed and understand the early universe in a new way. For example, with Webb, we found that these early galaxies were more massive and brighter than we expected, raising questions:

“How can they grow so big so fast?” said Mark Clampin, director of the astrophysics division at NASA headquarters.

Webb has detected the earliest known galaxies and provided insights into areas such as the composition of planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, and the nature of star-forming regions in the cosmos.