In the late 1980s, it was discovered to be an ultraluminous infrared galaxy and headed a list compiled from observations with the now-defunct IRAS satellite . New observations with the Hubble Space Telescope are quite revealing. A result of this spiral collision are fantastic knots of new star formation visible as the bright spots on the above photograph. The bright knot to the left is the center of the other broken spiral galaxy. The galaxy cores are about 1200 light years apart and are orbiting each other.
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