The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the most amazing view of spiral galaxy NGC 7714 as this galaxy drifted too close to its neighbor galaxy, leading to speculation of a stunning collision.

The twisting spiral arms formed an obscure shape as it dragged out material across space and produced ultra bright explosions due to star formations.

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NGC 7714 is about 100 million light years from Earth, which is relatively close in the astronomical sense. This galaxy has experienced turbulent and violent events in its recent history manifested in its strange spiral shaped arms stretching across space. The arms look like a smoky golden haze of dust and matter.

This abomination in shape is caused by its companion galaxy called NGC 7715. Both galaxies are so close they apparently merged some 100 to 200 million years ago, disrupting each other's shape and overall structure.

During this merging, a ring and two long tails from the stars emerged from NGC 7714 and created a bridge connecting the two galaxies. This bridge acts like a funnel from NGC 7715 and siphons material that encourages star formation. This activity is concentrated in the galaxies' bright center that emits sparkling bursts of new stars.

Astronomers classify NGC 7714 as a Wolf-Rayet starburst galaxy, meaning a large number of new stars in the galaxy are of the Wolf-Rayet type, which are extremely hot and bright. They lose their energy quickly due to powerful solar winds.

This particular image taken by Hubble is a composite image from a range of wavelengths and it reveals gas clouds and hidden stars in the galaxy. It also reveals the intricate structure and activity of NGC 7714 and other interstellar objects that are farther away than the galaxy.

TagsHubble Reveals Two Massive Galaxies Colliding Into a Spiral Loop, Hubble Space Telescope, ESA, NASA, spiral galaxies merging hubble image photo