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The Penguin and the Egg as seen via Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Thursday marked two years since the James Webb Space Telescope began full scientific operations. NASA released the observatory’s latest image to celebrate the occasion: a whimsical depiction of two interacting galaxies dubbed “the Penguin and the Egg.”
At first glance, Webb’s image appears to conjure everyone’s favorite flightless bird from a cluster of stars and whirling space dust. Below the tip of the penguin’s beak lies a vibrant “egg,” which is an elliptical galaxy (NGC 2937) packed with aging stars. The spiral galaxy that makes up the penguin (NGC 2936) has unwound, allowing it to take on a bird-like shape. Its central bulge is nonetheless highly radiant, giving the penguin an “eye” around which the rest of its body glows.
Known collectively as Arp 142, the Penguin and the Egg are thought to have interacted for 25 to 75 million years. When they first passed by one another, the Penguin held a tight spiral shape, but the galaxies’ celestial tug-of-war eventually pulled the Penguin’s thinner gas and dust masses outward. NASA says these materials-in-motion eventually became stars, forming what appears to be a fish in the Penguin’s “beak” and the feathers in its fanned-out “tail.” Carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—the same molecules responsible for the galactic “fireworks” Webb captured this Fourth of July—swirl around the new stars, creating a fuzzy appearance reminiscent of smoke.
The above image was made possible by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which capture near- and mid-infrared light, respectively. Though Webb doesn’t technically “see” in color, space agencies colorize the observatory’s snapshots after completing several other processing steps, one of which involves “stitching” multiple frames together to create a sharper and more informative picture. Colors are chosen as representations of different picture elements, like the “blue” stars scattered around the Penguin and the “teal” Egg seen in Webb’s MIRI-only view (below).
The Penguin and the Egg as seen via Webb’s MIRI.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
These images—which improve dramatically on Hubble’s Penguin and the Egg picture from 2013—exhibit perfectly the imaging capabilities Webb has offered since its operational kick-off on July 11, 2022.
“In just two years, Webb has transformed our view of the universe, enabling the kind of world-class science that drove NASA to make this mission a reality,” Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, said. “Webb is providing insights into longstanding mysteries about the early universe and ushering in a new era of studying distant worlds, while returning images that inspire people around the world and posing exciting new questions to answer. It has never been more possible to explore every facet of the universe.”