NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered a sonic boom many times the size of the Milky Way, which was triggered during a galactic invasion.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which is designed by the U.S. The National Science Foundation's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and JWST detected galaxy NGC 7318b pushing its way into the Stephan's Quintet at 1.8 million miles per hour, a speed equivalent to traveling from Earth to the Moon in only eight minutes.
ALMA, JWST Reveal Sonic Boom in Stephen's Quintet
Shockwaves produced by the catastrophic collision between an invader galaxy and Stephan's Quintet are assisting scientists in understanding how turbulence affects gas in the intergalactic medium.
ALMA and JWST have discovered that the sonic boom has triggered a recycling facility for warm and cold molecular hydrogen gas, SciTech Daily reports. Furthermore, scientists discovered the disintegration of a massive cloud into a fog of warm gas, the probable collision of two clouds resulting in a splash of warm gas surrounding them, and the birth of a new galaxy.
The observations were presented in a press conference on Monday, January 9, 2023, during the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle, Washington.
Galaxy collisions and mergers typically cause a surge of star formation; however, this is not the case with Stephan's Quintet. Instead, the collision is occurring in the intergalactic medium, distant from galaxies and in areas with little to no star formation to obscure the picture.
Astronomers have been able to observe what is happening when one of the galaxies, NGC 7318b, forcefully intrudes into the group at a relative speed of around 800 km/second. A flight from Earth to the Moon would take only eight minutes at that speed.
The project's lead investigator Philip Appleton, an astronomer from Caltech's IPAC, explained that the intruder collides with an old gas streamer that was likely formed from a previous interaction between two of the other galaxies, which caused the shock wave.
The shockwave generated a highly turbulent, cooling layer and is in the regions affected by the violent activity where unanticipated shapes and recycling of molecular hydrogen gas can be observed. Appleton noted that this is important because molecular hydrogen is the raw material in star formation, so understanding it will uncover the history of Stephen's Quintet.
What Is Stephen's Quintet?
Stephan's Quintet is a collection of five galaxies. According to NASA, NGC 7320 galaxy at the top left has been discovered to be a foreground galaxy nearly seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group.
Furthermore, three of the galaxies have deformed forms, prolonged spiral arms, and lengthy, gaseous tidal tails holding a plethora of star clusters, indicating near interactions. These interactions have generated a star-birthing frenzy in the center pair of galaxies.
The NGC 7319 at the upper right is a barred spiral galaxy with prominent spiral arms that run approximately 180 degrees back to the bar. It has thousands of star clusters represented ass blue specks in photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as red spots above and at the right of the core.
Meanwhile, galaxies NGC 7318A and NGC 7318B have young, vivid blue star clusters and pinkish clouds of incandescent hydrogen where newborn stars are being created encircling the galaxies.
Lastly, the NGC 7317 at the bottom left is a typical-looking elliptical galaxy that is less likely affected by the interactions of other galaxies in the group.
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