Discover the ‘Cosmic Owl’: James Webb Telescope Unveils Stunning Structure from Colliding Ring Galaxies

Whooo’s that? It’s “Cosmic Owl,” a fascinating find from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)! Scientists have spotted an owl-faced object billions of light-years away. This unique formation comes from an unusual collision of two rare ring galaxies, offering researchers a natural lab to study how galaxies evolve.

Galaxies have different shapes. Our own Milky Way is a spiral, while others, like M82, take on a cigar shape. Ring galaxies, like Hoag’s Object, are quite rare, representing just 0.01% of all discovered galaxies. The Cosmic Owl is even more special because it showcases two ring galaxies colliding, a sight that’s hardly been seen before.

A new study from June 11, not yet peer-reviewed but already confirmed by other scientists, dives into this discovery. Researcher Mingyu Li, a doctoral student from Tsinghua University, said they stumbled upon this gem while analyzing public JWST data in the COSMOS field, an area rich in astronomical information.

The Cosmic Owl’s two galaxies each measure about 26,000 light-years across—only a quarter of the Milky Way’s diameter. Their centers, bustling with old stars and a supermassive black hole each over 10 million times the sun’s mass, form the owl’s eyes. High-res JWST images show that these black holes are energetically gobbling nearby matter, creating “active galactic nuclei.”

Furthermore, the front of the collision acts as a zone of intense activity. The research team found a significant clump of gas there, seen as “the raw fuel for star formation.” The galaxies’ collision generated shock waves that compressed the gas, triggering new stars to form, transforming this region into a “stellar nursery.”

Interestingly, data from the Very Large Array in New Mexico indicates that particles from one black hole are hitting this gas cloud, further boosting star formation. This suggests a critical mechanism for how stars rapidly form, which researchers had previously overlooked.

Galactic collisions like this typically last a few hundred million years. Researchers estimate that the Cosmic Owl’s collision happened around 38 million years ago, meaning it will remain visible for quite some time.

Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the Cosmic Owl serves as a rich source of insights into galaxy formation and growth. Li noted that studying the forces at play here could help scientists comprehend the speed at which early galaxies amassed their stellar mass. Future research will focus on the details of this collision, including factors like the angle of impact and the galaxies’ original structures.

This isn’t the first intriguing find from the JWST. Other curious shapes, like a question-mark-shaped structure formed by merging galaxies and a gas wisp resembling a cat’s tail, have also captivated astronomers and enthusiasts alike.

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