'Cosmic Owl' spotted in deep space by James Webb
The James Webb Space Telescope just found something wild—two ring galaxies smashed together 11 billion light-years away, forming a cosmic shape that looks like an owl's face.
Astronomers are calling it the "Cosmic Owl," and the discovery was just published on the arXiv preprint server.
How the 'Cosmic Owl' was formed
These two galaxies, each about 26,000 light-years wide, collided head-on about 38 million years ago.
Their bright centers now act as glowing "eyes," each hiding a supermassive black hole that's still feeding on gas and dust.
The collision also created a dense gas cloud—the "beak"—where new stars are rapidly being born thanks to shockwaves and jets from one of the black holes.
Rare look at early universe
The Cosmic Owl is giving scientists a rare look at how galaxies and black holes grew in the early universe.
Its unique shape and active star-making zone help researchers piece together how cosmic structures form over time—kind of like getting a snapshot of galaxy evolution in action.