Recently, the Hubble Telescope discovered an extraordinarily bright galaxy that has been interacting with its neighbors for a few hundred million years. Located in the constellation of Sextans, this galaxy, known as NGC 3256, is a rare, luminous infrared galaxy that shines brightly in infrared light.

This remarkable galaxy, which is the brightest in the nearby universe, is the result of a cosmic collision between two galaxies that have merged together. The merger between the two galaxies sparked a high rate of star formation, producing a multitude of new stars in the process.

This star formation has caused NGC 3256 to be one of the brightest galaxies in our local universe, boasting an impressive infrared luminosity of about one trillion times the luminosity of the Sun. This is an incredible feat, and astronomers are excited to learn more about the interactions between galaxies like this one and their neighbors.

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source: Phys.org