This stunning new image captured by Hubble shows triple galaxy merger in progress

The picture captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the distant galaxy merger IC 2431, which lies 681 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has shared a stunning new image which appears to be a triple galaxy merger in progress. The picture captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the distant galaxy merger IC 2431, which lies 681 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer.

As described the agency, the image also shows a tumultuous mixture of star formation and tidal distortions caused by the gravitational interactions of this galactic trio.

📷 This NASA/ESA @HUBBLE_space Telescope image shows the distant galaxy merger IC 2431, which could even be a triple galaxy merger in progress 👉 https://t.co/yDXydFuAWj pic.twitter.com/9jef4g0QEJ

— ESA (@esa) February 14, 2022

Astronomers used Hubble's powerful Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to take a closer look at some of the more unusual galaxies that volunteers had identified under the Galaxy Zoo citizen science project.

According to ESA, the original Galaxy Zoo project was the largest galaxy census ever carried out, and relied on crowdsourcing time from more than 100 000 volunteers to classify 900 000 unexamined galaxies. Later projects have included the largest ever studies of galaxy mergers and tidal dwarf galaxies, as well as the discovery of entirely new types of compact star-forming galaxies.