Interacting galaxies. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the interacting spiral galaxies NGC 2207 (left) and IC 2163 (right). IC 2163 grazed the larger galaxy some 40 million years ago, which distorted its spiral shape. A long streamer of dust and stars has been ejected from IC 2163 (centre right). IC 2163 lacks the energy needed to escape this interaction, and these galaxies will eventually merge in many millions of years. They lie around 114 million light years from Earth in the constellation Canis Major. Data for this image was collected by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the HST in May 1996 and November 1998.
