#ic 1623

[chibinotan]

Galactic Merger

[blueiscoool]

When Worlds Collide

Webb Telescope Image Shows Galaxies Colliding and A Brilliant Star Formation

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope depicts IC 1623, an entwined pair of interacting galaxies which lies around 270 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus. The two galaxies in IC 1623 are plunging headlong into one another in a process known as a galaxy merger. Their collision has ignited a frenzied spate of star formation known as a starburst, creating new stars at a rate more than twenty times that of the Milky Way galaxy.

This interacting galaxy system is particularly bright at infrared wavelengths, making it a perfect proving ground for Webb’s ability to study luminous galaxies. A team of astronomers captured IC 1623 across the infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum using a trio of Webb’s cutting-edge scientific instruments: MIRI, NIRSpec, and NIRCam. In so doing, they provided an abundance of data that will allow the astronomical community at large to fully explore how Webb’s unprecedented capabilities will help to unravel the complex interactions in galactic ecosystems. These observations are also accompanied by data from other observatories, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and will help set the stage for future observations of galactic systems with Webb.

The merger of these two galaxies has long been of interest to astronomers, and has previously been imaged by Hubble and by other space telescopes. The ongoing, extreme starburst causes intense infrared emission, and the merging galaxies may well be in the process of forming a supermassive black hole. A thick band of dust has blocked these valuable insights from the view of telescopes like Hubble. However, Webb’s infrared sensitivity and its impressive resolution at those wavelengths allows it to see past the dust and has resulted in the spectacular image above, a combination of MIRI and NIRCam imagery.

The luminous core of the galaxy merger turns out to be both very bright and highly compact, so much so that Webb’s diffraction spikes appear atop the galaxy in this image. The 8-pronged, snowflake-like diffraction spikes are created by the interaction of starlight with the physical structure of the telescope. The spiky quality of Webb’s observations is particularly noticeable in images containing bright stars, such as Webb’s first deep field image.

[fearforthestorm]

from NASA/ESA/CSA: IC 1623 is a pair of entwined galaxies in the constellation Cetus, about 270 million light years from Earth. The collision of galaxies produces intense infrared emissions, and a thick band of dust has blocked other telescopes like Hubble from being able to fully observe it. JWST's infrared sensitivity has allowed it to see past the dust and create this image using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) imagery.

[Image description: The two galaxies swirl into a single chaotic object in the centre. Long, blue spiral arms stretch vertically, faint at the edges. Hot gas spreads horizontally over that, mainly bright red with many small gold spots of star formation. The core of the merging galaxies is very bright and radiates eight large, golden diffraction spikes. The background is black, with many tiny galaxies in orange and blue.]

[quiltofstars]

Arp 236 (upper left) and IC 1622 (lower right) // Gary Imm

[chibinotan]

Infrared Merger

[chibinotan]

Cosmic Clash

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Final Merger Stage

[fishstickmonkey]

This Hubble image shows the interacting galaxy system IC 1623. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the ultraviolet, infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through eight filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Chandar.