Infinity Galaxy
The Infinity Galaxy (∞ Galaxy), also known as the Cosmic Owl, is an interacting galaxy pair approximately 8 billion light-years away observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the COSMOS-Web Survey. The galaxy is named due to its distinctive shape, which resembles the infinity symbol (∞). The 2025 discovery is credited to astronomers Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and Gabriel Brammer of the University of Copenhagen. The galaxy is likely one of the first observed examples of the direct collapse mechanism of black-hole formation.
| Infinity Galaxy | |
|---|---|
_(01JZJK8927VB7900WF3SAGSTFH).png) | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Sextans[1] |
| Right ascension | 10h 00m 27.9s |
| Declination | +02° 12′ 03.5″ |
| Redshift | 1.14 |
| Distance | ~ 8.3 Bly |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | |
| Other designations | |
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The Infinity Galaxy (∞ Galaxy), also known as the Cosmic Owl, is an interacting galaxy pair approximately 8 billion light-years away observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the COSMOS-Web Survey.[2] The galaxy is named due to its distinctive shape, which resembles the infinity symbol (∞). The 2025 discovery is credited to astronomers Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and Gabriel Brammer of the University of Copenhagen. The galaxy is likely one of the first observed examples of the direct collapse mechanism of black-hole formation.[3][4]
Discovery
[edit]The Infinity Galaxy was identified in 2025 through archival data from JWST's COSMOS-Web survey,[5] a large-scale program designed to map the structure of the early universe. The galaxy's unique morphology was first noted in infrared images captured by JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), with light represented at 0.9 microns (blue), 1.15 and 1.5 microns (green), and 2.0 microns (red). Archival observations of the COSMOS-Web field from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and the Very Large Array (VLA) and new Keck/LRIS spectra confirmed the presence of an active supermassive black hole between the two nuclei.[1][6]
The galaxy pair was independently discovered by a second team led by Mingyu Li, who dubbed it the Cosmic Owl.[7][8][9][10][11]
Structure
[edit]The Infinity Galaxy is characterized by two compact red nuclei, each surrounded by a ring of stars and gas. The structure is attributed to the head-on collision of two disk or ring galaxies approximately 50 million years ago, as evidenced by the relative velocities of the component disks.[2][7] The two disks are separated by an ionized-hydrogen-dominated collisional front likely experiencing bursty star formation as a result of gas compression and tidal interaction between the component disks as well as radio-jet feedback from an active galactic nucleus in one of the component galaxies.[7]
Black holes
[edit]The Infinity Galaxy hosts three active supermassive black holes. Two black holes lie within the compact nuclei of each galaxy, indicative of the pre-merger galaxies' central black holes; however, one black hole of approximately 1 million solar masses lies within the collisional front between the two component disks.[2] This black hole is of particular interest, as its formation aligns with predictions by the heavy-seed direct-collapse model, where a massive gas cloud or filament collapses into a black hole without star formation.[7] This hypothesis is supported by JWST spectroscopic data, showing that the central black hole's radial velocity matches that of the surrounding gas (within 50 km/s), implying that the black hole may have formed in situ during the galactic merger.[2][12][13]
Future research
[edit]Ongoing analysis of JWST's COSMOS-Web data may reveal additional galaxies with similar characteristics, further testing the direct-collapse model of black-hole formation.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "Infinity Galaxy [NIRCam]". Webb Space Telescope. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ a b c d van Dokkum, Pieter; Brammer, Gabriel; Baggen, Josephine F. W.; Keim, Michael A.; Natarajan, Priyamvada; Pasha, Imad (2025). "The ∞ Galaxy: A Candidate Direct-collapse Supermassive Black Hole between Two Massive, Ringed Nuclei". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 988 (1): L6. arXiv:2506.15618. Bibcode:2025ApJ...988L...6V. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/addcfe.
- ^ "NASA's Webb Finds Possible 'Direct Collapse' Black Hole". NASA. 15 July 2025. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ AAS Nova (16 July 2025). "A Candidate Direct-Collapse Black Hole in the Infinity Galaxy". Sky and Telescope.
- ^ a b Casey, Caitlin M.; et al. (2022). "COSMOS-Web: An Overview of the JWST Cosmic Origins Survey". The Astrophysical Journal. 954 (1): 31. arXiv:2211.07865. Bibcode:2023ApJ...954...31C. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acc2bc.
- ^ "James Webb Space Telescope finds rare figure-8 galaxy with a black hole forming at its heart". The Indian Express. 26 July 2025. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ a b c d Li, Mingyu; Emonts, Bjorn H. C.; Cai, Zheng; Tanaka, Takumi S.; Mercier, Wilfried; Wu, Yunjing; Yu, Fujiang; Sun, Fengwu; Bian, Fuyan (2025-06-11). "The Cosmic Owl: Twin Active Collisional Ring Galaxies with Starburst Merging Front at $z=1.14$". arXiv:2506.10058 [astro-ph.GA].
- ^ Mingyu Li, Bjorn H. C. Emonts, Zheng Cai, Takumi S. Tanaka, Wilfried Mercier, Yunjing Wu, Fujiang Yu, Fengwu Sun, Fuyan Bian, Emanuele Daddi, Xiaohui Fan, Xiaojing Lin, Jianwei Lyu, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Francesco Valentino (11 June 2025). "The Cosmic Owl: Twin Active Collisional Ring Galaxies with Starburst Merging Front at z=1.14". arXiv:2506.10058 [astro-ph.GA].
{{cite arXiv}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Lydia Amazouz (20 June 2025). "Astronomers Capture the 'Cosmic Owl' – A Rare Galaxy Collision That Looks Like an Owl's Face!". Daily Galaxy.
- ^ Tomasz Nowakowski (19 June 2025). "The Cosmic Owl: Astronomers discover a peculiar galaxy merger". Phys.org.
- ^ Muhammad Tuhin (19 June 2025). "Astronomers Discover "Cosmic Owl" Galaxy Merger with Twin Rings and Bright Eyes". Science News Today.
- ^ Lea, Robert (16 July 2025). "JWST finds unusual black hole in the center of the Infinity Galaxy: 'How can we make sense of this?'". Space.com. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ Dokkum, Pieter van; Brammer, Gabriel; Jennings, Connor; Pasha, Imad; Baggen, Josephine F. W. (2025). "Further Evidence for a Direct-Collapse Origin of the Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of the Infinity Galaxy". The Astrophysical Journal. 990 (2): L48. arXiv:2506.15619. Bibcode:2025ApJ...990L..48V. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/adfb50.
External links
[edit]
- Anton Petrov (28 July 2025). Groundbreaking Discovery of the First Ever Direct Collapse Black Hole. Video on YouTube.
