![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-cosmic-owl-astrono.jpg\" "\\"The")
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The schematic artistic view of the Cosmic Owl, consisting of twin collisional ring galaxies with binary AGN. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550\/arxiv.2506.10058<\/p>\n
An international team of astronomers reports the detection of a peculiar merger of two similar ring galaxies that morphologically resemble an owl’s face. The discovery of this galaxy merger, dubbed the “Cosmic Owl,” is presented<\/a> in a research paper published June 11 on the arXiv preprint server.<\/p>\n Galaxy mergers play a crucial role in the evolution of galaxies. These events redistribute the gas around galaxies, impact the stellar kinematics, transform galaxy morphology, and eventually lead to effective stellar mass assembly.<\/p>\n Some galaxy mergers<\/a> lead to the formation of collisional ring galaxies (CRGs), which are relatively rare as only a few hundred of them have been detected in the local universe. Rings in such galaxies are created when one galaxy passes directly through the disk of another in a nearly head-on collision, causing gas and stars to be shocked outward into a circular or near-circular pattern.<\/p>\n Now, a group of astronomers led by Mingyu Li of the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, has identified what seems to be a unique galaxy merger of two collisional ring galaxies. The galaxy merger was serendipitously detected using such instruments as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA) or the Very Large Array (VLA).<\/p>\n “Deep imaging and spectroscopy from JWST, ALMA, and VLA reveal a complex system of twin collisional ring galaxies, exhibiting a nearly identical morphology,” the researchers wrote in the paper.<\/p>\n The galaxy merger was detected at a redshift of 1.14. The collected images show that the Cosmic Owl consists of two interacting galaxies that have formed nearly identical collisional ring structures, each with a diameter of approximately 26,000 light years.<\/p>\n The astronomers noted that the symmetry of the rings of the Cosmic Owl suggests a head-on collision origin between two galaxies of similar mass and structure. They estimate that the stellar mass of the merging system is about 320 billion solar masses<\/a>, while the black holes in the two galaxies have masses of around 67 and 26 million solar masses.<\/p>\n The images reveal that the compact core of each galaxy forms an eye of the Cosmic Owl, while a central region of intense star formation, enhanced by younger stellar populations and nebular emission, appears in blue, resembling a beak between them.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the study found that each of the merging galaxies hosts an active galactic nucleus<\/a> (AGN) and that the northwestern “eye” has a bipolar radio jet. It appears that the jet extends to the beak region and induces additional shocks in the collision front between the two galaxies.<\/p>\n Summing up the results, the authors of the paper underlined the unique properties of the Cosmic Owl.<\/p>\n “The simultaneous occurrence of a head-on merger, twin ring formation, dual AGN activity, and a jet-triggered starburst offers a detailed snapshot of the mechanisms that assemble stellar mass and grow supermassive black holes<\/a> in the early universe,” the researchers concluded.<\/p>\n \n Written for you by our author Tomasz Nowakowski<\/a>, More information:<\/strong> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJournal information:<\/strong> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u00a9 2025 Science X Network\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCitation<\/strong>: \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMingyu Li et al, The Cosmic Owl: Twin Active Collisional Ring Galaxies with Starburst Merging Front at z=1.14, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550\/arxiv.2506.10058<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tarXiv<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Cosmic Owl: Astronomers discover a peculiar galaxy merger (2025, June 19)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 21 June 2025
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