Overview
- Texas A&M researchers using JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey imaging identified an ongoing collision of at least five galaxies in the young universe.
- The group occupies a tight volume with member separations of only tens of thousands of light-years and a combined star-formation rate near 250 solar masses per year.
- JWST data reveal an extended halo emitting from ionized oxygen and hydrogen outside the galaxies, showing early redistribution of heavy elements.
- The team concludes gravitational interactions in the merger likely drove the enrichment more than galactic winds, indicating complex processes were already active.
- Follow-up JWST observations are planned to map the motions of the gas and galaxies, with the peer-reviewed findings published by the Texas A&M–led team in Nature Astronomy.