The James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of a rare collision between two ring galaxies, an event that has been interpreted differently by two research teams, providing new insights into galaxy formation and evolution.

This collision, approximately 11 billion light-years away, has produced a striking structure dubbed the 'Cosmic Owl,' which features two active galactic nuclei resembling owl's eyes and a star-forming region that looks like a beak.

The Cosmic Owl serves as a natural laboratory for studying galaxy formation, black hole activity, and star creation, offering valuable data on how galaxies rapidly build stellar mass in the universe's early history.

The merger's collision zone is a crucial mechanism for rapid and efficient star formation, with radio jets from one galaxy's black hole further compressing gas and fueling stellar birth.

A second research team identified the same merger as the 'Infinity Galaxy,' which was studied using Keck spectroscopy, VLA radio data, and Chandra X-ray observations, revealing an actively accreting supermassive black hole.

The colliding galaxies are relatively small, about 26,000 light-years in diameter, and are in the early stages of merging, with the collision estimated to have occurred just 38 million years ago.

The collision has triggered a massive starburst in the 'beak' region, with shock waves and molecular gas compression fueling intense star formation.

The 'Cosmic Owl' features two active galactic nuclei resembling owl’s eyes, each harboring supermassive black holes over 10 million times the Sun's mass, and a star-forming region that looks like an owl’s beak.

This structure produces an intense shockwave, illustrating how galactic collisions and radio jets contribute to galaxy evolution and star formation.

This discovery highlights the significant role of galactic collisions and radio jets in star formation and galaxy development, adding to other unusual phenomena observed by JWST.

The merger, observed using Webb’s COSMOS-Web, PRIMER, COSMOS-3D, and ALMA in Chile, was identified as the 'Cosmic Owl' with active galactic nuclei, showcasing the telescope’s advanced capabilities.