Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of the galaxy NGC 7714.

NGC 7714, also catalogued as Markarian 538, is a peculiar galaxy located in the constellation Pisces, approximately 129 million light-years away.

Together with its companion, known as NGC 7715, the galaxy forms the interacting system Arp 284, which is the result of a recent collision (100 – 200 million years ago) between the two disk galaxies.

A ring and two long tails of stars have emerged from NGC 7714, creating a bridge between the two companions.

This bridge acts as a pipeline, funneling material from NGC 7715 towards its larger neighbor and feeding bursts of star formation.

Most of the star-forming activity is concentrated at the bright galactic center, although the whole galaxy is sparking new stars.

Astronomers also characterize NGC 7714 as a typical Wolf-Rayet starburst galaxy.

This is due to the stars within it; a large number of the new stars are of the Wolf-Rayet type – extremely hot and bright stars that begin their lives with dozens of times the mass of the Sun, but lose most of it very quickly via powerful winds.