The galactic system, product of that clash, receives the name of Arp-Madore 2026-424 (AM 2026-424) within the ‘Catalog of Associations and Peculiar Galaxies of the South’, a compendium of galaxies of unusual appearance initiated in 1966 by the American astronomer Halton Arp and then extended with the help of his colleague Barry Madore.
As a result of the collision, the gas and star dust discs of both galaxies were combined into a ring of intense formation of new stars.
It is an extremely rare type of event in the universe that would have happened only a few hundred times and is only possible if the galaxies collide in the right way.
In the image, published by the US space agency on the eve of Halloween, that ring seems to form the outline of a sinister face along with the nose.
“The side-by-side juxtaposition of the two central star bulbs of the galaxies we see here is also unusual,” they explained from NASA, adding: “Since the bulbs that form the ‘eyes’ appear to be the same size, we can be sure that the two galaxies involved in the crash were the same size.”
“This is different from the most common collisions in which smaller galaxies are engulfed by their larger neighbors,” experts say and clarify that the ring-shaped structure will last about 100 million years, while both galaxies will end up merge completely after 1,000 to 2,000 million years.