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We love this with the fire of a trillion suns
Shown here is Arp 220, an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a luminosity literally greater than that of a trillion suns. (It emits 300 times more light than the Milky Way!) Arp 220 glows brightest in infrared light, Webb’s specialty.
This object is the result of a collision between 2 spiral galaxies that began about 700 million years ago, sparking a huge burst of star formation. The light from this star formation is shrouded in dust, which Webb can see through with its infrared vision. Located 250 million light-years away, Arp 220 is both the nearest ULIRG and the brightest of the 3 galactic mergers closest to us.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope previously uncovered that the cores of the colliding galaxies are only about 1,200 light-years apart. Webb’s new view reveals material being drawn off the galaxies by gravity, shown in blue, as well as streams and filaments of coral-colored organic material.
Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/41g9b2E
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI with image processing by Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
