Second Anniversary of Webb Space Telescope's Observation of Interacting Galaxy 'Arp 142' Like a Penguin and an Egg The Gateway to the Universe

Sometimes we liken the appearance of celestial objects to something else. In familiar places, the moon's patterns have been likened to rabbits and people, and even in modern times with advanced telescopes, we can still see smiling faces and living beings in distant galaxies.

This is Arp 142, an interacting galaxy located about 326 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Hydra, and it's also one of the celestial objects that can be compared to a living organism. Don't you think the distorted orange galaxy in the middle is a penguin, and the white galaxy on the left looks like an egg?

Interacting galaxies are multiple galaxies that exert gravitational influence on each other by approaching or colliding. Some interacting galaxies have shapes that are greatly distorted by tidal forces, or have spiral arms that extend like long tails.

Arp 142 consists of a penguin-shaped spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and an egg-shaped elliptical galaxy NGC 2937. The two galaxies are estimated to be about 100,000 light-years apart, roughly the diameter of the Milky Way, but compared to the size of the universe, they are very close. The currently observed Arp 142 is thought to have been around 25 million to 75 million years old since NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 first came close together and began interacting, and it is expected that it will eventually take several hundred million years before they merge into one galaxy.

This image was taken in July 2022 based on data acquired by the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Observing Instrument (MIRI) of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It was created to celebrate the second anniversary of the Webb Space Telescope's science observations. Because the Webb Space Telescope primarily observes infrared wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye, the colors of the published images are tinted according to the filters used during acquisition.

According to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in the United States, which operates the Webb Space Telescope, NGC 2936 originally had a typical spiral shape for a spiral galaxy, but its interaction with NGC 2937 has caused it to be significantly distorted, making it resemble a penguin and what it now looks like. The penguin's eyes are located in the center of NGC 2936, and separate spiral arms define the shape of its body. In NGC 2936, star formation activity that produces new stars from gas and dust is enhanced by the effects of interactions, and it is believed that about 100 to 200 stars are born each year (the Milky Way galaxy) and about 6 to 7 stars are born each year).

On the other hand, unlike NGC 2936, which has been distorted into a penguin shape, the shape of NGC 2937 has remained largely unchanged. One reason for this is that NGC 2937, an elliptical galaxy, is rich in old stars and lacks the gas and dust that could be stripped from the galaxy by interactions. Additionally, the two galaxies have roughly the same mass and were not swallowed by NGC 2936 early on, which is thought to be why NGC 2937 has retained its shape.

In addition, a comparison image of Arp 142 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) (released in 2013) has also been released. The dust-rich band appears as a dark brown band in the HST image, but is much fainter in the Webb image, which captures infrared light that is less likely to be blocked by dust. NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 are clearly separate in the HST image, but in the Webb image the stars, gas and dust distributed to connect the two galaxies are also fainter and can be seen as a blur.

Images of Arp 142 observed by the Webb Space Telescope were released by STScI, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 12, 2024.

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• Space Science Institute – Live image of interacting galaxies celebrates Webb telescope’s second anniversary
• NASA – Live image of interacting galaxies celebrates Webb telescope’s second anniversary
• European Space Agency – Vivid web image of interacting galaxies Penguin and Egg
• European Space Agency/Web – Live image of interacting galaxies marks Webb telescope's second anniversary

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