Astronomers from an international team have used the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal, for the first time, the exact location of the luminous source powering colliding galaxies.
Roughly 500 million light-years away, near the constellation Delphinus, two galaxies are colliding. Known as merging galaxy IIZw096, this luminous phenomenon is obscured by cosmic dust, but researchers first identified a bright, energetic source of light 12 years ago.
An international team of researchers – including Chalmers astronomer Susanne Aalto – has used the James Webb Space Telescope to pinpoint the precise location of what they have dubbed the “engine” of the merging galaxy. The nickname is derived from the fact that it is responsible for 70 per cent of the total infrared emission of the system, despite its size, 570 light years — a tiny fraction of the size of the merging system, which is about 65,000 light years across.
Curiously, this source lies outside of the main parts of the galaxies and is not visible at all in the ultraviolet or visible light, previously observed with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Read more in the press release ‘Engine’ of luminous merging galaxies pinpointed for the first time from Hiroshima University, Japan