What it is: The galaxy duo Arp 142, also known as “the Penguin” and “the Egg”
Where it is: About 325 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hydra
When it was shared: July 12, 2024, the second anniversary of the First James Webb Space Telescope Photos Released
Why is it so special: After two years of operations, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has zoomed in on the oldest stars in the known universeuncovered tempting alien planets that could accommodate life, challenged leading theories of cosmology — and now, to celebrate his anniversary, he even tried his hand at bird watching.
The latest image from the advanced telescope, JWST, reveals the brightest view ever of Arp 142, a pair of merging galaxies that resemble a cosmic penguin guarding its brilliantly shiny egg. The larger Penguin Galaxy (called NGC 2936) gets its warped appearance from more than 25 million years of gravitational friction with its egg-shaped companion (NGC 2937), which will one day fully collide and merge with its neighbor.
The Penguin began its life as a spiral galaxy like ours Milky Wayaccording to NASA. But as many of us on Earth know, parenthood has a way of changing you. As the enormous Egg spins some 100,000 light-years away, the Penguin is becoming increasingly out of shape. What was once the dense center of the spiral galaxy is now the Penguin’s glittering eye; its once symmetrical spiral arms now stretch into a beak, back, and tail. In thinner regions, such as the Penguin’s beak and tail, gas and dust are fusing together to form new stars.
Related: James Webb’s telescope confirms something is seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe
The smaller Egg, glowing brightly to the left of Penguin, is a tightly packed elliptical galaxy that hasn’t changed much during its long galactic dance, NASA said. Although the Egg looks much smaller than Penguin, the two galaxies likely contain about the same amount of mass, explaining why the Egg hasn’t yet been snatched up by the larger Penguin. The eventual merger of Penguin and Egg is likely millions of years away, NASA added.
The new image combines data from JWST’s Near Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument, which together reveal a wide range of light that is normally invisible to the human eye. Using the same instruments, JWST has pulled back the curtain on some of the oldest, most remote structuresyielding a wealth of new information about the origins of stars, galaxies, and the universe itself. And the mission has only just begun.
“In just two years, Webb has changed our view of the universe,” Mark Clampsdirector of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a rack. “Webb offers insights into long-standing mysteries of the early universe and ushers in a new era of studying distant worlds. … It has never been more possible to explore every facet of the universe.”