Epic Galaxy Merger Captured By Hubble Telescope

The good old Hubble Space Telescope has, once again, delivered unto us a sweet shot from far out in space. This image of a galaxy, that looks suspiciously like a pizza that was ordered with half pepperoni or something, is the result of two supermassive blobs of interstellar dust, debris, stars, and other space weirdness smashing into each other 230 million light-years away from here. 

 

Originally labeled a single 'abnormal galaxy' - Galaxy NGC 6052 - these two were captured by Hubble in the midst of their cosmic coitus and were soon posted all over the internet. The European Space Agency (who jointly runs the Hubble mission with NASA) described the situation as “two separate galaxies [that] have been gradually drawn together, attracted by gravity, and have collided. We now see them merging into a single structure.” Awww, that sounds just so cute!