By Rick Adams
20, Sep 2024
Smile for the camera! The spiral galaxy, which has been illustrated, particularly seems to have been involved in an interaction with another elliptical galaxy, Arp 107 and despite its tumultuous appearance, it appears to be in a happier position with the two bright ‘eyes’ and the semicircular ‘smile.
Although this region was earlier captured in an infrared spectrum by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005, astronomers can now see it with much better resolution in the James This image has been produced from data collected with Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera).
NIRCam highlights the stars within both galaxies and reveals the connection between them: a white, thin bridge of stars and gas that has been extracted from both galaxies while they were passing through each other.
The MIRI data, in orange-red color, reveals shockwaves where stars are formed and dust, which is composed of soot particles called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
MIRI also gives an exposure of the core of the large spiral, which hosts a supermassive black hole.
The above-mentioned spiral galaxy is a Seyfert galaxy, one of the two major classes of active galaxies, the other being the galaxies that host quasars.
Seyfert galaxies are not as bright and distant as the quasars; thus, they are a convenient method to observe similar processes at lower energy radiation, such as infrared radiation.