Hubblecast 31: Sky merger yields sparkling dividends

A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, smashing together at incredible speeds. This object was a target of Hubble's and a handful of its "sibling" spacecraft as part of a massive comprehensive sky survey called GOALS.

Credit:

ESA/Hubble
Visual design & Editing: Martin Kornmesser
Animations: Martin Kornmesser & Patrik Jonsson, Greg Novak & Joel Primack, UC Santa Cruz
Web Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen & Raquel Yumi Shida
Written by: Colleen Sharkey
Presented by: Dr Joe Liske (Dr J)
Music: movetwo & John Dyson from the CD Darklight
Still images: XMM-Newton: ESA/Chandra: NASA/Galex: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Spitzer: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Directed by: Colleen Sharkey
Executive director: Lars Lindberg Christensen
Acknowledgement: Dr. Eckhard Sturm