19 October 2012 Last updated at 05:58 ET

Big Picture: Galactic smash-up

Ring galaxy NGC 660

This "polar ring galaxy" NGC 660 is a snapshot of a galactic punch-up of the grandest type. At the centre of the image, captured at the Gemini Observatory, is a type of spiral galaxy. The vast ring of stars and debris around it - 40,000 light-years across - came from another galaxy in a collision that astronomers can now begin to unpick.

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