The Webb Space Telescope has released a gorgeous image of interacting galaxies in celebration of its 2nd anniversary. Webb, which sees in infrared light, released this image on July 12, 2024. The pair of galaxies are nicknamed the Penguin and the Egg, or collectively they’re known as Arp 142.
The two galaxies are about 100,000 light-years away from each other. That may sound far, but on the scale of the universe, it’s really quite close! In fact, it’s about as far apart as our Milky Way is wide.
The near- and mid-infrared observations from Webb’s cameras reveal a bluish cocoon around the galaxies. This haze is made of stars and gas from the galaxies’ interactions. The galaxies will continue to loop around each other in a gravitational dance for hundreds of million of years until they eventually merge into a single galaxy.
The galactic interaction has sparked star formation in the Penguin, most notably in its beak and tail feathers. Meanwhile, the elliptical Egg galaxy is older with less free gas to stir new star formation. The galaxies lie about 326 million light-years away from us in the direction of the constellation Hydra.
Now take a little time to look beyond the large galaxies in the image to the many, many other galaxies. The bluish galaxy at top right is about 100,000 light-years closer than the merging pair. This galaxy has the catalog designation PGC 1237172 and is relatively young. Most of the other galaxies here are more distant spirals and ovals captured in just a few hours of observation.
If you want an even closer look, check out a fly-through visualization here.
Bottom line: The Penguin and the Egg are two interacting galaxies that will one day merge. Webb released this image for its 2nd anniversary of science observations.
The post The Penguin and the Egg, interacting galaxies from Webb first appeared on EarthSky.
