'Pipeline' Funnels Matter Between Colliding Galaxies NGC 1410 and NGC 1409

This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals an intergalactic "pipeline" of material flowing between two battered galaxies that closely encountered one another about 100 million years ago. The pipeline (the dark string of matter) begins in NGC 1410 (the galaxy at left), crosses over 20,000 light-years of intergalactic space, and wraps around NGC 1409 (the companion galaxy at right) like a ribbon around a package. Although astronomers have taken many stunning pictures of interacting galaxies, this image represents the clearest view of how some neighboring galaxies dump material onto their companions.