James Webb Telescope captures galaxies merging

The image captured by James Webb shows two galaxies slowly blending in a mist of stars and gas, like a penguin hugging an egg to protect it.

On July 12, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released two photos taken from the James Webb Space Telescope showing two galaxies, the "Penguin" and the "Egg", in the process of merging.

James Webb Telescope captures galaxies merging - (Photo: REUTERS).

The two photos were released to mark the second anniversary of NASA announcing the first scientific results from the space observatory.

The two galaxies, the "Penguin" and the "Egg," are located 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. When merged together, they are collectively known as Arp 142 .

The "Penguin" galaxy, officially designated NGC 2936 , is a spiral galaxy. The "Egg" galaxy, also named for its elliptical shape, is officially known as NGC 2937. 

The image captured by James Webb shows two galaxies slowly blending in a mist of stars and gas, like a penguin hugging an egg to protect it.

According to NASA, the interaction between these two galaxies began 25 - 75 million years ago and the process of merging into one galaxy will end after hundreds of millions of years.

Born after the Hubble telescope, Webb was designed with many superior capabilities. Webb observed the universe mainly in the infrared region, while Hubble has mainly monitored in the optical and ultraviolet wavelength regions.