Cosmic Collision

A galaxy is staging a frenzy of starbirth after ramming through a companion galaxy in this view from Hubble Space Telescope. Collectively, the pair is known as Arp 143, with the individual galaxies known as NGC 2444 (left) and 2445. The galaxies appear to have staged a head-on collision tens of millions of years ago. That compressed giant clouds of gas in gas-rich NGC 2445, triggering the birth of millions of new stars. The new stars form the brilliant blue regions. The bright pink regions host especially young stellar nurseries, which are still enshrouded in the gas and dust that are giving them birth. The interaction also pulled out streamers of stars and gas from NC 2445, giving it a triangular shape. [NASA/ESA/STScI/Julianne Dalcanton (Ctr Computational Astrophys/Flatiron/Univ Washington)]