Merging Spiral Galaxy NGC 7714

NGC 7714 is a spiral galaxy 100 million light-years from Earth — a relatively close neighbor in cosmic terms. The galaxy has undergone a cataclysmic collision in its recent past. Tell-tale signs of this slowly unfolding but tumultuous event can be seen in NGC 7714's strangely shaped arms, and in the smoky, golden haze that stretches out from the galactic center — the combined glow of millions of individual stars thrown from their initial courses. The hit-and-run culprit is galactic companion NGC 7715, which is beyond the frame of this Hubble Space Telescope image. The two galaxies are destined to loop back upon one another again and eventually merge into a single, larger system.