Interacting galaxies Hubble Space Telescope HST image of the interacting spiral galaxies NGC left and IC right IC grazed the larger galaxy some million years ago which distorted its spiral shape A long streamer of dust and stars has been ejected from IC centre right IC lacks the energy needed to escape this interaction and these galaxies will eventually merge in many millions of years They lie around million light years from Earth in the constellation Canis Major Data for this image was collected by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera on the HST in May and November