Arp 107, a pair of merging galaxies 450 million light-years away. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI

In the farthest reaches of the universe, a spectacular cosmic event is unfolding. The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of two galaxies in the midst of a massive merger, offering a glimpse into the vast expanse of space.

Arp 107, the interacting galaxies, have been gravitationally bound for hundreds of millions of years, slowly coalescing into a single entity. A delicate bridge of stars has formed between them, a phenomenon our own Milky Way has experienced in the past and may encounter again in the distant future.

This breathtaking image, taken 450 million light-years away, provides a unique insight into this cosmic merger:

– Ancient stellar populations and the galactic bridge: The white regions are comprised of older stars, abundant in both galaxies, which also form the "tenuous bridge of gas and stars that runs between [the galaxies]," as described by the European Space Agency (ESA).

– Vibrant starburst activity: When galaxies collide, their gases converge and condense, triggering the formation of new stars. In this image, Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument reveals these expansive star-forming regions in vibrant orange and red hues, a testament to the dynamic nature of galaxy mergers.

– Distant galaxies in the cosmic expanse: Nearly all the objects in the background are distant galaxies — many spiral galaxies like our own — each teeming with their own stars and likely planets, a reminder of the vastness of the universe and the mysteries that lie within, as explored on t8tech.com.

The immense gravitational pull of galaxies is the driving force behind these cosmic collisions, drawing them inexorably towards each other. As Diego Muñoz, an astrophysicist at Northern Arizona University, notes, "It's highly likely that a galaxy will encounter a comparable or smaller galaxy over the course of its lifetime."

Despite the enormity of galaxy collisions, the planets they harbor are not necessarily condemned to destruction. The vast distances between stars and their relatively small size make catastrophic encounters extremely rare, even during a galaxy merger. “In fact, if you were to shrink the sun to the size of a grain of sand, the distance to the nearest star would be measured in miles,” explains Sally Dodson-Robinson, a planetary scientist at the University of Delaware.

The Webb Telescope: A Beacon of Cosmic Discovery

The Webb telescope, a collaborative endeavor between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency, is designed to probe the deepest recesses of the cosmos, unveiling novel insights about the early universe. Additionally, it is examining fascinating planets in our galaxy, as well as those in our solar system.

Here’s how Webb is achieving unprecedented feats, and likely will for decades to come:

– Expansive Mirror: Webb’s mirror, which captures light, spans an impressive 21 feet across. That’s more than two-and-a-half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s mirror. Capturing more light enables Webb to observe more distant, ancient objects. The telescope is gazing at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. “We’re going to see the very first stars and galaxies that ever formed,” Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, explained in 2021.

– Infrared Insight: Unlike Hubble, which primarily views visible light, Webb is essentially an infrared telescope, allowing us to see far more of the universe. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently penetrate cosmic clouds; the light doesn’t as often collide with and get scattered by these densely packed particles. Ultimately, Webb’s infrared vision can penetrate regions Hubble cannot.

“The veil is lifted,” Creighton exclaimed.

Unraveling the Mysteries of Distant Exoplanets: The Webb telescope is equipped with cutting-edge spectrographs that will revolutionize our understanding of these distant worlds. These instruments can decode the molecular composition (including water, carbon dioxide, and methane) of exoplanet atmospheres, whether they are gas giants or smaller rocky planets. The Webb telescope focuses on exoplanets within the Milky Way galaxy, and the possibilities are endless.

“We may stumble upon hidden truths beyond our wildest dreams,” Mercedes López-Morales, a renowned exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, observed in 2021.

Scientists have already achieved remarkable breakthroughs, including the identification of fascinating chemical processes on a distant planet 700 light-years away. They have also initiated an in-depth exploration of one of the most mesmerizing regions of the universe: the rocky, Earth-sized planets of the TRAPPIST solar system.