Three galaxies collide to form a shape that astronomers have dubbed The Bird – although many prefer the name Tinkerbell.
The image is 10 years old now, a three-colour construction that combines different exposures taken by the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
The Bird – or the fairy – falls within the constellation of Sagittarius, and sits around 650 million light years from Earth.
Originally published by Cosmos as Impossibly distant, impossibly huge, a fairy
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