The ultra luminous merger IRAS 06035-7102

IRAS 06035-7102 was formed as two spiral galaxies swung past each other on their first close encounter, throwing off huge streamers of gas and stars. At the same time, multiple bursts of vigorous star formation were ignited. The detail in the image allows these compact star clusters to be easily seen, both around the progenitor nuclei and also in the tidal tails. This is a K-band image obtained with NACO and the LGS. The colour-code corresponds to intensity.