NGC 3256

NGC 3256 is an impressive peculiar galaxy and, like the better known Antennae Galaxy, it shows visible evidence of a violent history in its two distinct tidal tails. These tails are clearly the result of the collision of two separate galaxies in the distant past.  Studies done on the Australian Telescope indicate this type of merger is likey to produce gobular clusters.   

This image of NGC3256 was created using only LRB data since the Green data was unusable.  We created a synthetic Green channel by using the Red and Blue data mixed.

Note that the blue rays extending from the upper left corner of this image are simply optical artifacts related to a bright star just outside the firld of view.