File:Webb captures the spectacular galactic merger Arp 220 (arp220b).jpg

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Author	Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
Copyright holder	Public
Source	ESA/Webb
Credit/Provider	NASA, ESA, CSA, K. Pontoppidan (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI)
Short title	Webb captures the spectacular galactic merger Arp 220
Image title	Shining like a brilliant beacon amidst a sea of galaxies, Arp 220 lights up the night sky in this view from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Actually two spiral galaxies in the process of merging, Arp 220 glows brightest in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb. It is an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a luminosity of more than a trillion suns. In comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a much more modest luminosity of about ten billion suns. Located 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Serpens, the Serpent, Arp 220 is the 220th object in Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. It is the nearest ULIRG and the brightest of the three galactic mergers closest to Earth. The collision of the two spiral galaxies began about 700 million years ago. It sparked an enormous burst of star formation. About 200 huge star clusters reside in a packed, dusty region about 5,000 light-years across (about 5 percent of the Milky Way’s diameter). The amount of gas in this tiny region is equal to all of the gas in the entire Milky Way galaxy. Previous radio telescope observations revealed about 100 supernova remnants in an area of less than 500 light-years. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope uncovered the cores of the parent galaxies 1,200 light-years apart. Each of the cores has a rotating, star-forming ring blasting out the dazzling infrared light so apparent in this Webb view. This glaring light creates diffraction spikes — the starburst feature that dominates this image. On the outskirts of this merger, Webb reveals faint tidal tails, or material drawn off the galaxies by gravity, represented in blue — evidence of the galactic dance that is occurring. Organic material represented in reddish-orange appears in streams and filaments across Arp 220. Webb viewed Arp 220 with its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). [Image description: Image titled James Webb Space Telescope, Arp 220. Added graphic elements are compass arrows, scale bar, and colour key. Orange, 6-pointed, star-like object surrounded by faint, grainy, bluish areas is overlaid by orange filaments]
Usage terms	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Date and time of data generation	16:00, 17 April 2023
Software used	Adobe Photoshop 23.5 (Macintosh)
File change date and time	16:09, 11 April 2023
Date and time of digitizing	10:10, 30 August 2022
Date metadata was last modified	12:50, 11 April 2023
Unique ID of original document	xmp.did:a0d4ea36-369b-4f2f-8e48-a80f0ca020a8
Copyright status	Copyright status not set
Keywords	Arp 220
Contact information	outreach@stsci.edu https://esawebb.org ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr Baltimore, MD, 21218 United States 410-338-4444
IIM version	4

File:Webb captures the spectacular galactic merger Arp 220 (arp220b).jpg

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