Galaxies Can Merge, Collide, Or Brush Past One Another — Each Of Which Has A Significant Impact On

Galaxies can merge, collide, or brush past one another — each of which has a significant impact on their shapes and structures. As common as these interactions are thought to be in the Universe, it is rare to capture an image of two galaxies interacting in such a visibly dynamic way. This image, from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, feels incredibly three-dimensional for a piece of deep-space imagery.

The subject of this image is named Arp 282, an interacting galaxy pair that is composed of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 169 (bottom) and the galaxy IC 1559 (top).

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, J. Schmidt