APOD 2.1- "Merging NGC 2623"

NASA's astronomy picture of the day from October 19 is an elegant sort of shape, and mixes the orange sorbet color scheme of a conch shell.

The image displays what is known as NGC 2623, which is actually two galaxies becoming one some 300 million light-years away towards the zodiacal constellation Cancer. Such a uniting is likely similar to the one that happened with the Milky Way Galaxy with its combining nucleus. Star formation ensued around the newly-forming nucleus, for many, many miles, part of tidal tails, with luminous stellar dust and gas.