The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured an image of two galaxies that are in the process of colliding, and the team at NASA thought it resembled the pumpkin from the animated Peanuts special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. So they decided to name the image “Greater Pumpkin.” It’s almost as if outer space is trying to send us a message about the fact that the Peanuts holiday specials will not be available on broadcast TV this year (thanks, Apple).
The two galaxies in question, NGC 2292 and NGC 2293, are currently in the midst of a slow motion collision that is predicted to eventually form a new, spiral galaxy. According to NASA, the “eyes” of the pumpkin are formed by “the bright, star-filled cores of each galaxy that contain supermassive black holes.” Yikes. The jack-o-lantern's smile is formed by a curved line of stars underneath the eyes.
