A photo taken by the James Webb Space Telescope has “transformed” a distant galaxy into a glittering Christmas decoration.
The record is part of research into the process of star formation, the growth of supermassive black holes and how galaxies gravitationally interact and merge over time.
The object in question is the NGC 7469, a 90,000 light-year-wide spiral galaxy, 230 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Pegasus.
It is special in that its plan is aimed almost directly in our direction; thus we can see its entire structure, with “tentacles” spreading throughout the universe.
Also, its center is very bright, especially in infrared radiation (James Webb’s specialty), like the huge Black hole that the orbiting galaxy is active. The surrounding material is “falling” into it, in a process that generates a lot of light, heating it up.
The image was captured by the telescope’s MIRI, NIRCam, and NIRspec instruments. See full:
It could be at the top of a Christmas tree, right?
But this six-pointed red “star” that dominates the scene, perfectly aligned with the center of the galaxy, is actually an optical effect: they are diffraction rays, generated by the mirrors of the telescope. While beautiful to look at, it’s not something real.
Below it, on the far left, you can see a chunk of another smaller galaxy, IC 5283. The two are locked in a gravitational dance; collectively they are known as Arp 298.
We see redder, brighter regions on the edges of NGC 7469 that are closer to IC 5283; this likely means that the larger galaxy is sucking star-forming nutrient gas from its companion. The interaction between the two also generates stellar explosions.
Check out the couple in this photo from Hubble:
In 2008, the Hubble Space Telescope recorded the Arp 298 galaxy pair
Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team, ESA/Hubble Collaboration, A. Evans
