According to the site for Wired, the photo at left was unveiled in honor of the Hubble Telescope's 18th birthday and reveals insight into a collision occurring 500 million light-years away, in the Ursa Major constellation. According to the article:
"Arp 148 consists of a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion. The ring was created by a shock wave that resulted from the galaxies colliding...Arp 148 is thought to provide a unique snapshot of an ongoing collision."
As I understand it, then, this collision that we're 'seeing now' actually happened ages ago, it's just taken the light that long to get to us and now the collision site looks completely different. But then, if the Hubble is looking at images from across the universe, did the light take that long to reach the telescope or the point at which the telescope is looking? Weird.
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