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Scientists Discover Owl-Shaped Galaxy Merger — But How Did It Form?

In the vast, dark canvas of the universe, every now and then, a cosmic wonder appears that leaves scientists in awe and sparks the imagination of the world. One such spectacular discovery is the “Cosmic Owl” — a peculiar and rare galaxy merger that looks uncannily like the face of an owl, complete with bright, glowing eyes and a luminous beak.

A team of international astronomers recently revealed this stunning phenomenon in a research paper published on the arXiv preprint server. Using powerful telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and the Very Large Array (VLA), scientists stumbled upon what appears to be a cosmic coincidence of beauty and science — two galaxies colliding head-on, forming twin rings that resemble an owl’s face.

Let’s explore what makes this discovery so unique, how such mergers happen, and what the Cosmic Owl can tell us about the universe’s past, present, and future.

🌌 What Are Galaxy Mergers?

A galaxy merger is an astronomical event where two or more galaxies come so close together that their gravitational forces cause them to collide and combine over time. These events are incredibly powerful and can dramatically reshape galaxies.

Here’s what happens during a typical galaxy merger:

  • Stars and gas within the galaxies interact and swirl around.

  • New stars are born due to the compression of gas clouds.

  • The structure and shape of galaxies are transformed.

  • Black holes at their centers may eventually merge, growing larger.

  • The merger may activate a galaxy’s core, forming what astronomers call an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN).

These processes play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. Our own Milky Way is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy, though that won’t happen for about 4 billion years.

🌀 The Rare Beauty of Ring Galaxies

While many galaxy mergers result in messy and irregular shapes, some collisions create a beautiful and symmetrical structure called a collisional ring galaxy (CRG).

In this scenario, one galaxy passes directly through the center of another galaxy’s disk in a head-on collision. The immense energy from the impact sends shockwaves outward, pushing stars and gas into a circular ring pattern. These glowing rings are spectacular to look at, but they are also extremely rare. Only a few hundred have been discovered so far in the local universe.

So, when two such ring galaxies are found merging together in perfect symmetry, it’s nothing short of breathtaking.

👁️ Discovery of the Cosmic Owl

The Cosmic Owl was discovered by a team of astronomers led by Mingyu Li from Tsinghua University, Beijing. It was not something they were specifically looking for — rather, it was a serendipitous (lucky and unexpected) find while using advanced observatories to study distant galaxies.

Key tools used in the discovery:

  • 🛰️ JWST (James Webb Space Telescope): Provided deep imaging in infrared light.

  • 📡 ALMA: Helped measure the movement of gas and dust in the galaxies.

  • 🌀 VLA: Captured radio waves and revealed signs of powerful jets.

These instruments detected a galaxy merger at a redshift of 1.14, which means the event occurred over 8 billion years ago — when the universe was still quite young.

🦉 Why Is It Called the “Cosmic Owl”?

When scientists looked at the combined image of the twin colliding galaxies, they were amazed. The merger had created a structure that strongly resembled the face of an owl.

Here’s how it breaks down:

  • 🟢 Two glowing ring galaxies form the eyes.

  • 🔵 A bright central region with intense star formation forms the beak.

  • The symmetry and structure of the rings look like an owl staring back from deep space.

This visual resemblance led them to nickname the object “The Cosmic Owl” — a poetic and fitting title for such a beautiful cosmic coincidence.

🌟 What Makes This Merger So Special?

This is not just a pretty picture. The Cosmic Owl has several scientific features that make it truly unique:

1. Twin Collisional Ring Galaxies

Both galaxies are nearly identical in shape, size, and mass. Each has a ring of about 26,000 light-years in diameter — roughly one-fourth the size of our Milky Way.

2. Head-On Collision

The perfect symmetry of the rings suggests that the galaxies collided almost head-on, a rare and precise type of encounter in galactic terms.

3. Massive Stellar Assembly

The total stellar mass of the merging system is estimated to be about 320 billion times the mass of our Sun — making it one of the most massive ring merger systems ever detected.

4. Supermassive Black Holes

Each of the merging galaxies contains a supermassive black hole at its center:

  • One is about 67 million solar masses.

  • The other is around 26 million solar masses.

These black holes are active, meaning they are consuming material and giving off radiation — a sign of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN).

5. Powerful Radio Jets

The black hole in the northwestern eye is releasing a bipolar radio jet — streams of charged particles moving at nearly the speed of light. These jets can stretch across thousands of light-years.

This particular jet appears to extend into the beak region, possibly triggering new star formation as it shocks the gas between the galaxies.

🌠 Starburst Region: Birth of New Stars

One of the most exciting parts of the Cosmic Owl is its beak, where the two galaxies interact the most. This region glows blue in the image, indicating the presence of younger stars and hot gas.

This is a starburst region — an area where new stars are forming at an unusually high rate. These bursts of star formation are common during galaxy mergers because the collision compresses gas clouds and causes them to collapse.

🔬 What Does This Teach Us?

The Cosmic Owl is more than just a cosmic curiosity. It is an incredible laboratory for understanding some of the most fundamental processes in the universe.

Here’s what scientists can learn from it:

  • How galaxies merge and evolve over billions of years.

  • How supermassive black holes grow and affect their host galaxies.

  • How star formation is triggered by galaxy collisions and jet activity.

  • The role of head-on collisions in shaping unique galaxy structures.

  • How dual AGNs influence their surroundings.

This system is also a rare opportunity to observe two active galaxies, each with a powerful black hole, caught mid-merger — something astronomers don’t see often.

📸 The Role of Modern Telescopes

None of this would have been possible without the advanced technology of today’s space and ground-based observatories.

🔭 James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

  • Captures deep and clear images in infrared light, revealing details hidden by dust.

  • Helps study stellar populations and young stars.

🛰️ ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array)

  • Observes cold gas and dust, the raw material for star formation.

  • Maps the motion of gas clouds in great detail.

📡 Very Large Array (VLA)

  • Detects radio waves from AGNs and jets.

  • Measures magnetic fields and high-energy processes.

Together, these tools allow astronomers to look back in time and observe events that occurred billions of years ago.

🌌 A Glimpse into the Early Universe

The Cosmic Owl was found at a redshift of 1.14, which places it about 8.3 billion light-years away. That means we are seeing the galaxies as they appeared just 5 billion years after the Big Bang.

This makes the discovery especially important because it offers a snapshot of galaxy evolution in the early universe. At that time, the universe was more chaotic, and galaxy mergers were more common.

✨ Final Thoughts: Nature’s Art in the Cosmos

The Cosmic Owl is a stunning example of how science and beauty often go hand in hand in the universe. While astronomers work hard to understand the physics and processes behind galaxy mergers, discoveries like this also inspire a sense of wonder and imagination.

It reminds us that the cosmos is not just a place of cold numbers and equations — it is also filled with mystery, poetry, and cosmic art.

📚 In Summary:

  • The Cosmic Owl is a rare and stunning merger of two ring galaxies.

  • It was discovered using JWST, ALMA, and VLA at a redshift of 1.14.

  • The system looks like an owl’s face, with eyes, a beak, and even a radio jet.

  • The merger features dual AGNs, supermassive black holes, and a starburst region.

  • It offers a rich opportunity to study galaxy evolution, black hole growth, and star formation in the early universe.

🦉 The universe just gave us a wink — and it looked like an owl.

Reference: Mingyu 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

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