Due to NGC 2623 being in the late stage of merging, the compression of the gas within the galaxy has led to a large amount of star formation, and to its unique structure of a bright core with two extending tidal tails.

[7][8] NGC 2623 gained its unusual and distinctive shape as the result of a major collision and subsequent merger between two separate galaxies.

[9] This violent encounter caused clouds of gas within the two galaxies to become compressed and stirred up, in turn triggering a sharp spike of star formation.

This active star formation is marked by speckled patches of bright blue; these can be seen clustered both in the center and along the trails of dust and gas forming NGC 2623's sweeping curves (known as tidal tails).

In addition to this active star-forming region, both galactic arms harbor very young stars in the early stages of their evolutionary journey.

[16] Both are nuclei of galaxies that contain active super massive black holes and emit very high levels of energy.

Through HST and GALEX, which are two space telescopes, images it is evident that recent star formation has occurred within the galaxy.

Tidal tails are long strips of bright star clusters that occur due to the interactions between different galaxies.