Webb spots Arp 263: a quirky galaxy shaped by a long-ago merger

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a striking image of Arp 263 (NGC 3239), a distorted irregular galaxy about 25 million light-years away thought to be the product of a past merger between two galaxies. Its stars aren’t aligned with its hydrogen gas, indicating a gravitational tug-of-war with a former companion now dissolved; a foreground Milky Way star, BD+17 2217, appears in the frame. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera reveals clusters of newly formed stars within dusty regions, offering new insights into stellar nurseries and the complex history of this peculiar galaxy.