Shockwaves resulting from the violent collision between an intruder galaxy and Stephan’s Quintet are helping astronomers to understand how turbulence influences gas in the intergalactic medium.New observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed that a sonic boom several times the size of the Milky Way has kickstarted a recycling plant for warm and cold molecular hydrogen gas. What’s more, scientists uncovered the break-up of a giant cloud into a fog of warm gas, the possible collision of two clouds forming a splash of warm gas around them, and the formation of a new galaxy.
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Image: © ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/JWST/ P. Appleton (Caltech), B.Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) discovered a recycling plant for warm and cold molecular hydrogen gas in Stephan’s Quintet, and it’s causing mysterious things to happen. At left: Field 6, which sits at the center of the main shock wave, is recycling warm and cold hydrogen gas as a giant cloud of cold molecules is stretched out into a warm tail of molecular hydrogen over and over again. At center: Field 5 unveiled two cold gas clouds connected by a stream of warm molecular hydrogen gas characterized by a high-speed collision that is feeding the warm envelope of gas around the region. At right: Field 4 revealed a steadier, less turbulent environment where hydrogen gas collapsed, forming what scientists believe to be a small dwarf galaxy in formation.