Galaxy (NGC 2276) Jigsaw Puzzle

A unique puzzle featuring a Hubble Space Telescope image of the interacting spiral galaxy NGC 2276. The image includes a brief description of the astronomical object and observatory/instrument that imaged it. Fun stuff: The spiral galaxy, known as NGC 2276, appears lopsided because it is interacting with another galaxy, much like bringing two sticky objects together and pulling them apart. The stars, dust, and other matter that makes up the galaxy wants to “stick” to the other passing galaxy. The sticky stuff is of course gravity. The blue arms of the galaxy are actually made up of young stars (who tend to be bluer), possibly born as a result of previous encounters with the passing galaxy. In a galactic drive-by, gas and dust tends to get clumped up, triggering it to collapse under its own gravity into stars. Technical stuff: Captured in 2019 by the Hubble Space Telescope’s workhorse instrument, Wide Field Camera 3, this image is the result of a stack of exposures taken in five different wavelength filters in the ultraviolet/visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Each filter in the exposure stack is assigned a color, producing the beautiful scene you see here. Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2021/029/01F60K4CF8WRAD8GQ03HEBNBMQ Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, Paul Sell (University of Florida) Acknowledgement: Leo Shatz