A soft blur of a galaxy, bordered on the right by explosions and bright starbursts

NGC 4485

This galaxy is irregular in shape, but it hasn’t always been so. Part of NGC 4485 has been dragged towards a second galaxy, named NGC 4490, which lies out of frame to the bottom right of this image. Between them, these two galaxies make up a galaxy pair called Arp 269. Their interactions have warped them both, turning them from spiral galaxies into irregular ones.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Kathy van Pelt