NGC 3256 (HST)

The peculiar galaxy NGC 3256 takes centre stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This distorted galaxy is the wreckage of a head-on collision between two spiral galaxies which likely occurred 500 million years ago, and it is studded with clumps of young stars which were formed as gas and dust from the two galaxies collided.

This image contains data from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. In contrast to the infrared-light image, this visible image lays out in detail the dark threads of dust and molecular gas that spin around the centres of the two merged galaxies. Hot, massive stars in the two nuclei shine brightly, giving a bluish colour to the core, even though the galaxy is more bright overall in infrared wavelengths. The image was originally released in 2018.

[Image Description: A large, face-on spiral galaxy. The core is radiating very brightly in white and bluish colours. Thin webs of dark gas cross the centre and most of the galaxy, following the twist of the galaxy. This gas continues out into a tidal tail at the upper-left, and another at the bottom. Small stars can be seen around the spiral galaxy, on a black background.]