The Hubble space telescope has captured an image of two galaxies merging into a single structure about 230 million light-years away.
The image, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy NGC 6052 was originally classified as a single abnormal galaxy.
However, it is in fact a ‘new’ galaxy in the process of forming, researchers said.
Two separate galaxies have been gradually drawn together, attracted by gravity, and have collided. We now see them merging into a single structure, they said.
As the merging process continues, individual stars are thrown out of their original orbits and placed onto entirely new paths, some very distant from the region of the collision itself.
Although the ‘galaxy’ now appears to have a highly chaotic shape, eventually it will settle down into a stable shape, which may not resemble either of the two original galaxies.