Tails of two galaxies

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 16 OCTOBER 2017 This bizarre-looking object is NGC 2623, the product of a galactic crash. It’s located 250 million lightyears away in Cancer. The two arms spreading out into space are known as tidal tails, and they were formed during a brief period of the collision in which the galaxies orbited one another. The force generated by this motion caused material to be flung off into space.