Sunny Priyan
In this Hubble snapshot, the magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 2276 appears lopsided, with its bright yellowish core offset to the upper left.
A gravitational tug from neighboring galaxy NGC 2300 is pulling NGC 2276’s blue starry disk outward, distorting its usual fried-egg shape.
This sort of 'tug of war' between galaxies that pass close enough to feel each other's gravitational pull is not uncommon in the universe. But, like snowflakes, no two close encounters look exactly alike.
In addition, newborn and short-lived massive stars form a bright, blue arm along the upper left edge of NGC 2276. They trace out a lane of intense star formation.
This may have been triggered by a prior collision with a dwarf galaxy. It could also be due to NGC 2276 plowing into the superheated gas that lies among galaxies in galaxy clusters.
This would compress the gas to precipitate into stars, and trigger a firestorm of starbirth. The spiral galaxy lies 120 million light-years away, in the northern constellation Cepheus.