Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing - Martin Pugh
Explanation: NGC 2623 is really
two galaxies that are becoming one. Seen to be in the final stages of a titanic galaxy merger, the
pair lies some 300 million light-years distant toward the constellation Cancer.
The violent encounter between two galaxies that may have been similar to the Milky Way has produced widespread star formation
near a luminous core and along eye-catching tidal
tails. Filled with dust, gas, and young blue star clusters, the opposing
tidal tails extend well over 50,000 light-years from the merged nucleus. Likely
triggered by the merger, accretion by a supermassive black hole drives activity
within the nuclear region. The star formation and its active galactic
nucleus make NGC
2623 bright across the spectrum. This sharp cosmic snapshot of NGC 2623 (aka
Arp 243) is based on Hubble Legacy Archive image data that also reveals even more distant background galaxies scattered through
the field of
