Two Galaxies Merging

In the constellation Cetus, roughly 270 million light-years from Earth, an entwined pair of interacting galaxies known as IC 1623 are merging into one. The two galaxies in IC 1623 are plunging headlong into one another in a process known as a galaxy merger. Their collision has ignited a frenzied spate of star formation known as a starburst, creating new stars at a rate more than twenty times that of the Milky Way galaxy. This interacting galaxy system is particularly bright at infrared wavelengths, making it a perfect proving ground for Webb’s ability to study luminous galaxies. The merger of these two galaxies has long been of interest to astronomers, and has previously been imaged by Hubble and by other space telescopes.