Tadpole Galaxy

The Tadpole Galaxy (also known as UGC 10214) is a spiral galaxy that has been violently disrupted by a collision with a smaller companion galaxy, which is visible as the compact, blue object in the upper left corner of the much more massive Tadpole galaxy. Strong gravitational forces from the interaction between the galaxies created the long tail of debris, which is made up of stars and gas that stretch out more than 280,000 light years. Hundreds of blue stars and star clusters are visible in the spiral arms of the galaxy and in the tidal debris tail. The galaxy is backdropped by thousands of faint background galaxies. The Tadpole Galaxy is located some 420 million light years away toward the constellation Draco.