Hubble has released a stunning new image of a star-forming dwarf irregular galaxy: Minkowski’s object. This system is located near the cotton ball-like NGC 541. This particular dwarf galaxy is being prodded into star formation through interaction with jets from NGC 541. Not visible in these images, those jets glow in the radio. As near as scientists can tell, the jet triggered a large, intragalactic cloud of gas and dust to collapse, and that cloud was big enough to form an entire galaxy – an entire galaxy that looks like a spray of glitter and splatter of paint. Galaxies come in all shapes and sizes.

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NASA Goddard image release