James Webb Telescope Images Galaxy Collision

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the galaxy merger known as Arp 107, located 465 million light-years away in the constellation Leo Minor. This merger involves a spiral galaxy and a smaller elliptical galaxy, forming a distinctive 'smile' shape due to the presence of a bridge of stars and gas between them. The image reveals vibrant star-forming regions, highlighted in orange and red, as the collision compresses gas and creates conditions conducive to new star formation. Notably, the spiral galaxy is classified as a Seyfert galaxy, which allows for easier study of its active galactic phenomena. While galaxy mergers can disrupt star formation, they can also introduce fresh gas reserves for new stars. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, the resulting galaxy will evolve, potentially losing its current 'smiley' appearance but transforming into something equally fascinating for future observations.