Image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows what happens when two galaxies merge. The twisted cosmic knot seen here is NGC 2623 Ñ or Arp 243 Ñ and is located about 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Cancer. NGC 2623 gained its unusual and distinctive shape as the result of a major collision and subsequent merger between two separate galaxies. This violent encounter caused clouds of gas within the two galaxies to become compressed and stirred up, in turn triggering a sharp spike of star formation. An Optimised version of an original NASA image / Credit: NASA

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Size: 3978px × 1910px
Location: Space, NGC 2623
Photo credit: © NASA / digitaleye / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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