A background object in the latest image from the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) is literally confusing. Also, this time, this object is not just metaphorically confusing, it also poses a question, resembling a giant question mark. It is very likely that this object is a distant galaxy that is interacting, taking on a shape that reminds us of a question mark.
The object looks like a tiny dot below the focus of the picture and is called Herbig-Haro 46/47. This duo consists of a pair of young stars that have been studied for decades. The stars are located on the edge of a dark nebula, so they may not look very majestic when observed with visible light. But JWST’s infrared eyes were able to reveal much more about the environment of these two baby stars by looking far beyond these layers.
JWST has such a keen view of the universe that most background objects in this observation are actually galaxies. Anything that does not include the characteristic six outward beams is something far beyond our galaxy, and the question mark is among them.
One possible explanation for the strange shape of this object is that there was a galaxy merger, or a place where two galaxies began to interact. We know of several such pairs in our local universe as well, and a famous example is the Mice Galaxies.
The question mark system is probably located far away from us. Galaxy mergers have lots of new star formation, so they tend to be more “blue” due to the more energetic light emitted by younger stars. This doesn’t seem to be the case for this object, but sometimes dust on the object or foreground can break this rule of thumb.
It’s unclear at this time whether a follow-up investigation is planned for this question mark object, and time will tell whether new research will be made to this odd spot in JWST’s busy schedule.
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