Galaxies Collide in a Blaze of Star Birth

A dusty spiral galaxy appears to be rotating on edge, like a pinwheel, as it slides through the larger, bright galaxy NGC 1275 in this Hubble Space Telescope image. Detailed observations of NGC 1275 indicate that the dusty material does indeed belong to a spiral system seen nearly edge-on in the foreground. Bright blue regions within the dust mark areas of active star formation. The background galaxy in the upper left is a giant elliptical with a peculiar, faint spiral structure appearing within its nucleus. The two galaxies are believed to be colliding at over 6 million miles per hour.