NGC 520 is the product of a collision between two disk galaxies that started 300 million years ago. It exemplifies the middle stages of the merging process: the disks of the parent galaxies have merged together, but the nuclei have not yet coalesced. It features an odd-looking tail of stars and a prominent dust lane that runs diagonally across the center of the image and obscures the galaxy. It is about 100 million light-years distant. Just a little ways away!

Using both ESA/ESO/NASA provided software and Photoshop I combined four B&W Hubble Telescope images (courtesy NASA and MAST) taken with Red, Green, Blue, and & Hydrogen-Alpha filters to create this image. Enjoy.