The Hubble Space Telescope captured two galaxies in the late stages of a colorful collision, collectively referred to as IC 1623. The image combines visible light with ultraviolet and infrared to give us a better look of what’s going on amid all the chaos. Despite being decades-old tech, Hubble still impresses people with its amazing images of the universe. And now, it has added a few more to its already incredible portfolio. Also called an “interacting galaxy system,” IC 1623 was actually already photographed by Hubble several years ago, in 2008. That image, however, looks markedly different from the newest one because it used only two filters that managed to capture infrared and visible light. The most recent photo of the galaxy system, on the other hand, was captured by a newer wide-field camera that was installed in 2009. Amid the calamitous flurry of two galaxies smashing together, there is beauty. The Hubble Space Telescope captured IC 1623, giving us a new glimpse at what two titanic space objects colliding looks like. These spiral galaxies, roughly 275 million light-years away from Earth, are in the late stages of their merge. The image, shared by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), is a compilation of Hubble observations made using eight filters. Experts believe that as these two galaxies merge, there will be a violent inflow of gas, which will collide and condense into a starburst galaxy. Starburst galaxies are characterized by their intense rate of star production.
