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Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar
A cataclysmic cosmic collision takes center stage in this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The image features the interacting galaxy pair IC 1623, which lies around 275 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (the Whale).
The two galaxies are in the final stages of merging, and astronomers expect a powerful inflow of gas to ignite a frenzied burst of star formation in the resulting compact starburst galaxy.
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