Image of Colliding Galaxies Resembles a Penguin Guarding an Egg

About 325 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of Hydra, two galaxies are merging together and are currently in a shape that resembles the silhouette of a penguin guarding an egg.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured the compelling image of the intergalactic crash course of the two far away galaxies.

The colliding mass of stars and dust, known together as Arp 142, is an amalgamation of the galaxies NGC 2936 and NGC 2937. Arp 142 is named after the American astronomer Halton Arp, NASA reported. Arp was the creator of the "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies," a compendium of weird-shaped galaxies originally published in 1966.

In the above image, the larger, blue, spiral galaxy is NGC 2936. Compared to other spiral galaxies, NGC 2936 is a bit sloppy, mainly due to its interaction with NGC 2937, which is causing the spiral's gas to extend outward. Other examples of spiral galaxies have much more distinct arms and a clearly defined galactic core. Still, remnants of the spiral structure can be seen by looking towards the "eye" of the penguin, which is formed by the galactic bulge.

The red-orange streak in the image is galactic dust. NGC 2937 is the blurry, bright "egg" shape the penguin shape seems to be looming over. NGC 2937's color indicates it's an older galaxy and has no recent star-formation activity. As stars burn off their hydrogen, their temperature decreases and color changes.

NASA reports the Arp 142 pair are close enough that they may begin interacting violently "exchanging matter and causing havoc," as the space agency put it.

The Hubble image is a combination of visible and infrared light.