A Tour of Arp 142

This video tours Arp 142, an interacting galaxy pair affectionately known as the Penguin and the Egg that lies 326 million light-years from Earth. The journey begins and ends on a new mid- and near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, and includes a brief fade to a visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The pair are separated by only 100,000 light-years — relatively close in astronomical terms. Our Milky Way galaxy and nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, are separated by about 2.5 million light-years. This tour spotlights what’s happened since they’ve interacted, including a blue haze that joins them. Also look for contrasting views of the spiral galaxy at top right, which “disappears” in Webb’s mid-infrared view. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI)