Colliding galaxies take on the shape of a penguin guarding its egg

The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured this stunning image of a spiral galaxy in the midst of a collision with its elliptical companion. But as you can clearly see, this celestial encounter has warped the spiral galaxy into something altogether different.

Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Together, the duo is called Arp 142. Individually, it's the star-forming galaxy NGC 2936 and the elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 (the bright orb at lower left). Arp 142 is located 326 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.

On a related note, this is what will happen when our galaxy collides with Andromeda.

Here's the new image in its full splendour.

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More on what happens when galaxies collide here and here.