Webb captures the spectacular galactic merger Arp 220
IMAGE: A STUNNING SMASH-UP OF TWO SPIRAL GALAXIES SHINES IN INFRARED WITH THE LIGHT OF MORE THAN A TRILLION SUNS. COLLECTIVELY CALLED ARP 220, THE COLLIDING GALAXIES IGNITED A TREMENDOUS BURST OF STAR BIRTH. EACH OF THE COMBINING GALACTIC CORES IS ENCIRCLED BY A ROTATING, STAR-FORMING RING BLASTING OUT THE GLARING LIGHT THAT WEBB CAPTURED IN INFRARED. THIS BRILLIANT LIGHT CREATES A PROMINENT, SPIKED, STARBURST FEATURE. view more
CREDIT: CREDITS: NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI, ALYSSA PAGAN (STSCI)
Shining like a brilliant beacon amidst a sea of galaxies, Arp 220 lights up the night sky in this view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Actually two spiral galaxies in the process of merging, Arp 220 glows brightest in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb. It is an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a luminosity of more than a trillion suns. In comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a much more modest luminosity of about ten billion suns.
Located 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Serpens, the Serpent, Arp 220 is the 220th object in Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. It is the nearest ULIRG and the brightest of the three galactic mergers closest to Earth.
The collision of the two spiral galaxies began about 700 million years ago. It sparked an enormous burst of star formation. About 200 huge star clusters reside in a packed, dusty region about 5,000 light-years across (about 5 percent of the Milky Way's diameter). The amount of gas in this tiny region is equal to all of the gas in the entire Milky Way galaxy.
Previous radio telescope observations revealed about 100 supernova remnants in an area of less than 500 light-years. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope uncovered the cores of the parent galaxies 1,200 light-years apart. Each of the cores has a rotating, star-forming ring blasting out the dazzling infrared light so apparent in this Webb view. This glaring light creates diffraction spikes — the starburst feature that dominates this image.
On the outskirts of this merger, Webb reveals faint tidal tails, or material drawn off the galaxies by gravity, represented in blue — evidence of the galactic dance that is occurring. Organic material represented in reddish-orange appears in streams and filaments across Arp 220.
Webb viewed Arp 220 with its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
James Webb Space Telescope keeps findings galaxies that shouldn’t exist, scientist warns
Story by Andrew Griffin • Yesterday
ngc1433.png© NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)
The James Webb Space Telescope keeps finding galaxies that shouldn’t exist, a scientist has warned.
Six of the earliest and most massive galaxies that Nasa’s breakthrough telescope has seen so far appear to be bigger and more mature than they should be given where they are in the universe, researchers have warned.
The new findings build on previous research where scientists reported that despite coming from the very beginnings of the universe, the galaxies were as mature as our own Milky Way.
Now a new paper has appeared to confirm those findings, by “stress testing” the galaxies to better understand how they formed.
It suggests that, if scientists have not made a mistake, we may be missing some fundamental information about the universe.
“If the masses are right, then we are in uncharted territory,” said Mike Boylan-Kolchin, from the University.of Texas at Austin, and the author of a new paper examining the unsual galaxies. “We’ll require something very new about galaxy formation or a modification to cosmology. One of the most extreme possibilities is that the universe was expanding faster shortly after the Big Bang than we predict, which might require new forces and particles.”
It suggests that the information from the JWST proposes a profound dilemma for scientists. The data indicates that there mighttbe somehitn wrong with the dark energy and cold dark matter paradigm, or ΛCDM, that has been guiding cosmology for decades.
Usually, galaxies convert around 10 per cent of their gas into stars. But the newly discovered galaxies would have to be converting almost the entirety of it into stars.
That is theoretically possible. But it is a departure from what scientists would ever have expected.
Further observation of the galaxies should better clarify their ages and masses. It might show that the observations are incorrect: that supermassive black holes at their centre are heating the galaxies up, so they look more massive than they are, or that they are actually from a later time than expected but look older because of imaging problems.
But if they are confirmed, then astronomers may have to change their understanding of the cosmos and how galaxies grow, to adjust their model to account for the unusually large and mature galaxies.
Mission Ax-2 set to launch stem cells to space
Upcoming missions will be the first time induced pluripotent stem cells will be produced in microgravity by astronauts
Business AnnouncementVIDEO: IN EARLY MAY, A SPACEX FALCON 9 ROCKET WILL LAUNCH THE AX-2 CREW ABOARD A DRAGON SPACECRAFT TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FROM LAUNCH COMPLEX 39A AT NASA’S KENNEDY SPACE CENTER IN FLORIDA. view more
CREDIT: CEDARS-SINAI
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