The James Webb Telescope has once again shown an image of the universe, this time of IC 1623, an intertwined pair of interacting galaxies located about 270 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cetus.

These two galaxies are rushing towards each other in a process known as galaxy mergers; their collision triggered a frenetic wave of star formation known as starburst, creating new stars at a rate more than twenty times that of the Milky Way, explains the European Space Agency (ESA) on its website Internet.

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This system is particularly bright at infrared wavelengths, making it “a perfect testing ground” for Webb’s ability to study luminous galaxies, and it’s possible that these merging galaxies are forming a supermassive black hole.

To capture this new image, the James Webb Telescope’s MIRI, NIRSpec and NIRCam instruments were used.

Thanks to this, a large amount of data has been obtained that will allow the astronomical community to fully explore how Webb’s “unprecedented capabilities” will help unravel the complex interactions in galactic ecosystems, continues ESA, which, with the American space agency NASA and the Canadian CSA made this telescope possible.

The merger of these two galaxies has long been of interest to astronomers, and the system has already been observed by Hubble and other space telescopes.

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The “precious data” that has now been obtained had been blocked by a thick layer of dust for telescopes like Hubble; Webb’s infrared sensitivity and “impressive resolution” at these wavelengths made it possible to see past the dust.

“This resulted in the spectacular image”, the data of which was published in the Astrophysical Journal.