Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured new infrared images of two interacting galaxies. Alp 142.

The interacting pair, Arp 142, is located about 326 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.

This system is ARP Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies It was observed by astronomer Halton C. Earp in the 1960s.

It contains the star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and its elliptical companion galaxy NGC 2937 at the lower left, which bears a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its eggs.

The “penguin” part of the pair, NGC 2936, was probably once a relatively ordinary-looking spiral galaxy – flat like a pancake, with smoothly symmetrical spiral arms.

Because of the abundance of newly formed, hot stars, its shape is twisted and distorted by the gravitational forces of nearby stars.

The twin “egg,” NGC 2937, is a collection of much older stars and, in contrast, is largely featureless.

The absence of glowing red dust features indicates that it long ago lost its reservoir of gas and dust from which new stars could form.

“The two asteroids first came close to each other between 25 million and 75 million years ago, triggering 'fireworks' – the formation of new stars – in the constellation of Penguin,” astronomer Webb said in a statement.

“In the most extreme cases, galaxy mergers could result in the formation of thousands of new stars every year for millions of years.”

“In the case of penguins, studies have found that they form around 100-200 stars per year. By comparison, in our own Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of a similar size), around six to seven new stars form per year.”

“This gravitational rocking also changed the penguins' appearance,” they noted.

“The spiral arms uncoiled, pulling gas and dust in different directions like confetti.”

“When galaxies interact, it's rare for individual stars to collide (the universe is huge), but the intermingling of galaxies disrupts the orbits of stars.”

“Currently, the centre of the Penguin's galaxy looks like an eye inside its head, and the galaxy has a prominent star trail in the shape of a beak, spine and fanned-out tail. A faint but noticeable dust ribbon stretches from the beak to the tail.”

“Although the Penguin Galaxy appears much larger than the Egg Galaxy, the two galaxies have roughly the same mass,” the astronomers said.

“This is one of the reasons why the tiny looking egg hasn't merged with the penguin yet.”

“Because the elliptical egg is filled with old stars and contains very little gas or dust, it doesn't emit its own 'streams' or tidal tails, and instead maintains its compact elliptical shape.”

“If you look closely, the Egg has four noticeable diffraction spikes – it's glowing because of a high concentration of stars from the galaxy.”

“Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy in the upper right. It may look like it's crashing the party, but it’s not close by.”

Cataloging No. 1237172It lies nearly 100 million light-years from Earth. It is relatively young and not covered by dust, making it virtually invisible in Webb's mid-infrared images.”