Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to pinpoint the exact location
About 500 million light years from Earth,near the constellation Delphinus, two galaxies collide. This phenomenon, known as merging galaxy IIZw096, is hidden by cosmic dust. There, researchers first identified a bright and energetic light source 12 years ago.
In 2010, with the help of Spitzer (whichobserves objects in the mid-IR range) the same team of scientists measured the power of the “space engine”. However, they were unable to determine its exact source location due to the limited resolution of the telescope.
Image Credit & Copyright: Hanae Inami, University of Hiroshima.
Now, with the help of Webb's data, they have plottedon the map the source of IR radiation in IIZw096 9 in the photo above). They also found that the radius of the source does not exceed 570 light years. Moreover, the size of the merging galaxy is about 65,000 light years across.
According to scientists, this source strongly influences the merger of galaxies, despite the fact that it is located on the outskirts, like a grain of pepper on the white of a scrambled egg.
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Cover photo: Jean Beaufort, CC0