 Here are a few of the interacting galaxies photographed by Hubble in 2017. Here we are zooming into Markarian 266. The odd structure of this galaxy is due to the fact that it is not one galaxy, but two, in the process of a galactic collision. It is composed of two disc galaxies whose nuclei are currently just 13,000 light years apart. Their constituent gas, dust, and stars are swirling together, igniting newborn stars in bright star formation regions across the galaxy. In addition, each merging galaxy contains an active galactic nucleus, or gas and other debris are fed into supermassive black holes. Here we see NGC-4490 and NGC-4485. Together they form the system ARP 269. 24,000 light years currently separates the two. Over millions of years, their mutual gravitational attraction has dragged the two galaxies into each other. In this image, the two galaxies have moved through each other and are speeding apart again, but the galaxies are likely to collide once more within a few billion years. The extreme tidal forces of these interactions have determined the shapes and properties of the two galaxies. 4490 was once a barred spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, but now virtually no trace of its past spiral structure can be seen from our perspective. The outlying regions have been stretched out, resulting in its nickname the Cocoon Galaxy. Here we're zooming in to tiny galaxy NGC-1510 and its colossal neighbor NGC-1512. The large galaxy to the left in this image is classified as a barred spiral. The tiny galaxy to the right is a dwarf galaxy. Despite their very different sizes, each galaxy affects the other through gravity, causing slow changes in their appearances. Here's an image of two galaxies. One is seen almost face on and the other is edge on. They were observed by Hubble in 2017 to celebrate its 27th year in orbit. In the face on galaxy we can see spiral arms and the blue patches of ongoing star formation and young stars. In the edge on galaxy we can see huge swaths of dust responsible for the molted brown patterns. We also see a burst of blue to the left side of the galaxy indicating a region of extremely vigorous star formation. Their galaxy centers are 35,000 light-years apart. At their closest point the galaxies are separated from each other by only 7,000 light-years. Even as very close arrangement, astronomers are intrigued by the galaxy's apparent lack of any significant gravitational interaction. The long tidal tails and deformations in other structures that are typical of galaxies lying so close together are missing completely.