IC 1623 is agalaxy merger in the constellationCetus. The galaxy lies about 250 millionlight years away from Earth, which means, given its apparent dimensions, that IC 1623 is approximately 115,000 light years across.[1] It was discovered byLewis Swift on November 19, 1897.[3][4]
IC 1623 by theJames Webb Space Telescope. The luminous core of the galaxy merger turns out to be both very bright and highly compact, so much so thatdiffraction spikes appear atop the galaxy in this image.[5]
IC 1623 consists of two galaxies in the early to mid stages of merger. The nuclei of the two galaxies lie 20 arcseconds apart. The western component (VV 114W) is bright inultraviolet andoptical light[6][7] and hosts a large number of optically luminous youngstar clusters.[8] The eastern component, VV 114E, is invisible at UV wavelengths and has prominent dust lanes that cover much of the diffuse light of the underlying stellar population at optical wavelengths.[6][7] Beyond 1 μm, VV 114E increasingly becomes the dominant luminosity component of the merger,[6] being the brightest source inmid infrared. The whole galaxy shines bright in infrared and it is characterised as aluminous infrared galaxy, with a total infrared luminosity (LIR) of 5 × 1011L⊙.[9]
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observed the nucleus of the eastern galaxy in mid-infrared, revealing a northeastern and a southwestern core. The mid-infrared colors of these cores indicate that the northeastern core is associated with a starburst, while the southwestern core is linked to an active galactic nucleus (AGN).[10][11] Spectral line analysis suggests the presence of a rapidly accreting intermediate-massblack hole in the southwestern nucleus, which may evolve into a supermassive black hole.[12] Additionally, JWST identified 40 star-forming regions with a total star formation rate ranging from 0.02 to 6 solar masses per year. There is also significant diffuse emission from filaments, primarily attributed topolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons heated by the star-forming regions and the underlying stellar population.[10]
^abcKnop, R. A.; Soifer, B. T.; Graham, J. R.; Matthews, K.; Sanders, D. B.; Scoville, N. Z. (March 1994). "VV 114, a high infrared luminosity interacting galaxy system".The Astronomical Journal.107: 920.Bibcode:1994AJ....107..920K.doi:10.1086/116906.
^abGoldader, Jeffrey D.; Meurer, Gerhardt; Heckman, Timothy M.; Seibert, Mark; Sanders, D. B.; Calzetti, Daniela; Steidel, Charles C. (April 2002). "Far-Infrared Galaxies in the Far-Ultraviolet".The Astrophysical Journal.568 (2):651–678.arXiv:astro-ph/0112352.Bibcode:2002ApJ...568..651G.doi:10.1086/339165.
^abEvans, A. S.; Frayer, D. T.; Charmandaris, Vassilis; Armus, Lee; Inami, Hanae; Surace, Jason; Linden, Sean; Soifer, B. T.; Diaz-Santos, Tanio; Larson, Kirsten L.; Rich, Jeffrey A.; Song, Yiqing; Barcos-Munoz, Loreto; Mazzarella, Joseph M.; Privon, George C.; U, Vivian; Medling, Anne M.; Böker, Torsten; Aalto, Susanne; Iwasawa, Kazushi; Howell, Justin H.; van der Werf, Paul; Appleton, Philip; Bohn, Thomas; Brown, Michael J. I.; Hayward, Christopher C.; Hoshioka, Shunshi; Kemper, Francisca; Lai, Thomas; Law, David; Malkan, Matthew A.; Marshall, Jason; Murphy, Eric J.; Sanders, David; Stierwalt, Sabrina (1 November 2022)."GOALS-JWST: Hidden Star Formation and Extended PAH Emission in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy VV 114".The Astrophysical Journal Letters.940 (1): L8.arXiv:2208.14507.Bibcode:2022ApJ...940L...8E.doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac9971. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under theCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license.
^Rich, J.; Aalto, S.; Evans, A. S.; Charmandaris, V.; Privon, G. C.; Lai, T.; Inami, H.; Linden, S.; Armus, L.; Diaz-Santos, T.; Appleton, P.; Barcos-Muñoz, L.; Böker, T.; Larson, K. L.; Law, D. R.; Malkan, M. A.; Medling, A. M.; Song, Y.; U, V.; van der Werf, P.; Bohn, T.; Brown, M. J. I.; Finnerty, L.; Hayward, C.; Howell, J.; Iwasawa, K.; Kemper, F.; Marshall, J.; Mazzarella, J. M.; McKinney, J.; Muller-Sanchez, F.; Murphy, E. J.; Sanders, D.; Soifer, B. T.; Stierwalt, S.; Surace, J. (1 February 2023)."GOALS-JWST: Pulling Back the Curtain on the AGN and Star Formation in VV 114".The Astrophysical Journal Letters.944 (2): L50.arXiv:2301.02338.Bibcode:2023ApJ...944L..50R.doi:10.3847/2041-8213/acb2b8.
^González-Alfonso, Eduardo; García-Bernete, Ismael; Pereira-Santaella, Miguel; Neufeld, David A.; Fischer, Jacqueline; Donnan, Fergus R. (February 2024). "JWST detection of extremely excited outflowing CO and H 2 O in VV 114 E SW: A possible rapidly accreting IMBH".Astronomy & Astrophysics.682: A182.arXiv:2312.04914.doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348469.
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This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under theCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license.
