NGC 520 looks like a galaxy in the midst of
exploding. In reality, it’s the exact opposite. Two enormous
spiral galaxies are crashing into each other, melding and
forming a new conglomerate. This happens slowly, over millions
of years — the whole process started some 300 million years ago.
The object, about 100 000 light-years across, is now in the
middle stage of the merging process, as the two nuclei haven’t
merged yet, but the two discs have. The merger features a tail
of stars and a prominent dust lane. NGC 520 is one of the
brightest interacting galaxies in the sky and lies in the
direction of Pisces, approximately 100 million light-years from
Earth.
