This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows three galaxies that are merging to become one, called IC 2431. This object is located in the constellation of Cancer and is 681 million light-years away.
There is also plentiful star formation happening in parts of the merger, with new stars being born amid the chaos. A thick cloud of dust obscures the center of the image, but some of the most active areas may be right in the middle of the merger.
One of the earliest and biggest citizen science projects in astronomy investigated this object. Members of the public have been invited to help with the identification and classification of galaxies, mergers, and supernovas with the help of theGalaxy Zoo project.
Hubble scientists write that the original Galaxy Zoo project was the largest galaxy census ever carried out and relied on the help of more than 100,000 volunteers. The discovery of entirely new types of compact star-forming galaxies, as well as the largest ever studies of galaxy mergers and tidal dwarf galaxies, have been included in the later Galaxy Zoo projects.
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