The IC 1623 galactic merger is particularly bright at infrared wavelengths, making Webb particularly suited to capturing it. (Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus & A. Evans) The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, showing two galaxies plunging into one another in a galactic merger. The galactic merger is named IC 1623 and lies around 270 million light-years away from us in the constellation Cetus.
Starburst caused by galactic merger
By colliding into each other, these two galaxies have triggered a deluge of star formation that is known as a starburst. This starburst is forming new stars at a rate that is twenty times higher than that of the Milky Way galaxy.
Why Webb was best suited to take this image
According to ESA, this galactic merger has held the interest of astronomers for a long time and has been previously imaged by Hubble and other space telescopes. The rapid starburst sends out intense infrared radiation and the two galaxies might be on their way to forming a supermassive black hole.
Latest @ESA_Webb picture of the month shows IC 1623, a pair of interacting galaxies, plunging into one another. Their collision has ignited a spate of star formation creating new stars at a rate above 20 times that of the Milky Way.
— ESA (@esa) October 26, 2022
Telescopes like Hubble were not able to reveal these details because of the thick band of dust blocking the phenomenon. Webb, on the other hand, is particularly suited to investigating such cosmic objects because of its infrared sensitivity and much better resolution at those wavelengths. This allowed it to see past the dust and capture this image.
The astronomers captured IC 1623 across infrared portions of light using Webb’s MIRI, NIRSpec and NIRCam instruments. By using this trio, they were able to gain “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,” according to the ESA.