NASA’s Hubble and Webb capture eerie, blood-soaked eye systems
Two of the most advanced telescopes, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), recently captured a stunning and somewhat eerie image of two merging spiral galaxies, IC 2163 and NGC 2207. The constellation Canis Major is located around 80 degrees . million light years away. These galaxies are slowly merging into each other. This is a process that experts estimate will take about a billion years. The resulting image, released just in time for Halloween, shows what scientists describe as a ‘blood-soaked’ appearance, lending a spectral quality to this cosmic phenomenon.
A fusion of light and data
According to the latest report of Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble and Webb telescopes each contribute a unique perspective to this. Hubble’s visible and ultraviolet light sensors display the starry arms of these galaxies in shades of blue, with their dense cores glowing a striking orange. In contrast, JWST’s mid-infrared image presents the swirling dust and gas in a pale, almost ghostly white. As explained by the JWST team, this contrast provides insight into the different wavelengths emitted when the galaxies interact. As reported by Space.com, these observations reveal the turbulence and ongoing star formation caused by the gravitational forces between the galaxies.
Decades of supernovae and star births
As these two galaxies continue their gradual integration, they are generating new stars at a rapid rate: about twenty Sun-sized stars per year, based on current estimates. This duo has produced at least seven supernovae in recent decades, a far higher number than what we have seen in our own Milky Way. The Milky Way experiences one every 50 years. According to NASA, IC 2163 and NGC 2207 first approached each other about 40 million years ago, resulting in the current close orbit that is now slowly decreasing.
The slow dance to unity
Experts speculate that as the merger continues, the two galaxies will eventually form a larger, unified structure. This merger process is expected to produce a stronger, brighter core and potentially new spiral arms as the galaxies’ gas and dust settle. Until then, images from these telescopes provide a convincing picture of a process that will take place over millions of years.
