This is Arp 220, a galaxy formed as a result of a collision with another galaxy and 250 million light years away.

This galaxy is an Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy, which means it generates a lot of energy at the infrared end of the spectrum. It is thought that the merged galaxy includes an active galaxy nucleus which means that there’s a supermassive black hole at the center of this galaxy that’s responsible for a lot of the energy observed in the X-ray part of the spectrum.

The infrared radiation is thought to be a result of star formation that was triggered by the merging of the two galaxies. Hubble observations reveled over 200 star clusters within this galaxy, with the most massive single cluster containing the equivalent of 10 million Suns of material.

This is impressive for what looks like a smudge on the image!