 The contorted object captured by Hubble in this picture is known as the South America Galaxy. It is an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy that emits a huge amount of light at infrared wavelengths. The reason for this intense infrared emission lies in an episode of strong star formation activity which was set off by a collision between two galaxies. In the central region, which is very complex and disturbed, scientists have been able to distinguish two nuclei, remains of the two different galaxies that are currently colliding to form this new one. Other traces of the galactic collision are the three very noticeable tails in the image, two linear and one circular.