Arp 142: When Galaxies Collide

Arp 142: When Galaxies Collide

Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

This image shows the two galaxies interacting. NGC 2936, once a standard spiral galaxy, and NGC 2937, a smaller elliptical, bear a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its egg. Image released June 20, 2013.

When Galaxies Collide

When Galaxies Collide

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

Arp 148 is the staggering aftermath of an encounter between two galaxies, resulting in a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion.

Colliding Galaxies Swirl in Dazzling New Photo

Colliding Galaxies Swirl in Dazzling New Photo

Credit: NASA, ESA, SAO, CXC, JPL-Caltech, and STScI [Full Story]

This beautiful composite image of two colliding galaxies was released by NASA's Great Observatories. The collision between the Antennae galaxies, which are located about 62 million light-years from Earth, began more than 100 million years ago and is still occurring.

VV 340 Galaxy Collision Forms Exclamation Point

VV 340 Galaxy Collision Forms Exclamation Point

Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/IfA/D.Sanders et al; Optical NASA/STScI/NRAO/A.Evans et al

The deep space object VV 340, also known as Arp 302, is a textbook example of two colliding galaxies in a crash that will take millions of years. VV 340 is 450 million light-years from Earth. This image was released Aug. 11, 2011.

New Look at a Colossal Cosmic Collision

New Look at a Colossal Cosmic Collision

Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/CfA/E.O'Sullivan); Optical (Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope/Coelum)

This beautiful image gives a new look at the interacting galaxies of Stephan's Quintet. The curved, light blue ridge running down the center of the image shows X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Four of the galaxies in the group are visible in the optical image (yellow, red, white and blue) from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. A labeled version (roll over the image above) identifies these galaxies (NGC 7317, NGC 7318a, NGC 7318b and NGC 7319) as well as a prominent foreground galaxy (NGC 7320) that is not a member of the group.

Hubble Photographs Colliding Galaxies

Hubble Photographs Colliding Galaxies

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

Markarian 273 is a galaxy with a bizarre structure that vaguely resembles a toothbrush. The "handle" of the brush is about 130 thousand light-years long and is strongly indicative of a merger between two galaxies. Markarian 273 has an intense region of starburst, where 60 solar masses of new stars are born each year. The galaxy is located 500 million light-years away from Earth.

Merging Galaxies, Active Black Holes

Merging Galaxies, Active Black Holes

Credit: David A. Hardy/UK ATC

This illustration of a system called 4C60.07 shows two colliding galaxies, one of which (left) has already turned most of its gas into stars and its black hole is ejecting jets of charged particles. This galaxy is pulling gas and dust from the neighboring galaxy, where star formation is occurring.

Galactic Collisions Leave Cosmic Skid Marks

Galactic Collisions Leave Cosmic Skid Marks

Credit: Jin Koda / Stony Brook University

This deep optical image of the Antennae galaxies (main image) shows new tidal debris at the northern tip (inset) that have resulted from two colliding galaxies.

Galaxy Collisions Distort

Galaxy Collisions Distort

Credit: NASA/Swift/NOAO/Michael Koss and Richard Mushotzky (Univ. of Maryland)

These images, taken with the 2.1-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, show galaxy shapes that are either physically intertwined or distorted by the gravity of nearby neighbors.

The Milkomeda Galaxy

The Milkomeda Galaxy

Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

This artist's conception shows the Milkomeda Galaxy, the result of the predicted collision between the Milky Way and its neighbor Andromeda a trillion years from now.

Evolving, Merging Galaxies

Evolving, Merging Galaxies

Credit: C. Moss, C. Thomas, P. James, Liverpool John Moores U.

Two interacting galaxies in the Perseus cluster about 300 million light years away provide new clues to how galaxies evolve.

Merging Galaxies Obscure Huge Black Hole

Merging Galaxies Obscure Huge Black Hole

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)/ E. Treister and K. Teramura (IfA, University of Hawaii)

Examples of merging galaxies containing a heavily obscured growing supermassive black hole observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The top panels show nearby galaxies at ~500 million light-years from us, while the more distant galaxies in the bottom panels are ~6.5 billion light years away, when the universe was half its current age.

Black Hole Knocked Off Axis By Galaxy Collision

Black Hole Knocked Off Axis By Galaxy Collision

Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/UMD/Hodges-Kluck et al): Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/UMD/Hodges-Kluck et al); Optical (SDSS) Full Story

This X-ray image of hot gas in and around 4C +00.58 reveals four different cavities -- regions of lower than average X-ray emission -- around a black hole that was disturbed by galaxy interactions. These cavities come in pairs: one in the top-right and bottom-left (labeled cavities #1 and #2 respectively), and another in the top-left and bottom-right (labeled cavities #3 and #4 respectively). Special processing was applied to this image to make the cavities more obvious.

Galaxy Collision May Reveal Insights on Universe's Evolution

Galaxy Collision May Reveal Insights on Universe's Evolution

Credit: ESO [Full Story]

This new image shows the results of a vast collision between two galaxies. This strange object is known as NGC 7252, or Arp 226, and has the odd nickname Atoms-for-Peace. The picture was taken at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. It is a combination of exposures taken through blue and red filters, for a total exposure time of more than four hours.

Collisions Don't Always Feed Black Holes

Collisions Don't Always Feed Black Holes

Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Cisternas

A study using images from the Hubble Space Telescope has found that galaxies with powerful black holes at their cores - called Active Galactic Nuclei or AGN (on the left) need not rely on galaxy collisions to grow. Non-AGN galaxies are shown on the right. The photos come from the COSMOS survey using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Tadpoles Signal Black Hole Mergers

Space Tadpoles Signal Black Hole Mergers

Credit: A. Straughn/S. Cohen/R. Windhorst/NASA/HUDF team

An image of 36 young galaxies caught in the act of merging. They are called "tadpole" galaxies because of their distinct knot-and-tail shapes.

NGC 5426

NGC 5426

Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are two spiral galaxies known together as Arp 271. Image created February-March 2012.