Awesome.Thanks for sharing, Jerry.

Must be an interesting night sky for the folks living in those galaxies --- at least for those not too near any of the supernovae initiated by the collision! Probably quite a few solar systems gravitationally disrupted. Very few actual collisions though - distances between stars are too large for that to be very likely.







And this is a 4-way smash up (maybe a roundabout or traffic lights would have helped?) ...

Yep, I've booked my ticket for the front row.
Only about 4 billion years to wait.

Here's the most convincing artist's impression of the view from my front row seat that I have yet come across.

Wouldn't that be spectacular! It would also give the end-of-the-world board walkers a smile on their face.

A variety of sources simply found searching with Google Images.

... and 2 galaxies are nearly 1.
The last stages of a merger.



The side tails are streamers of new stars forming as a result of compression of dust and gas from the collision. Not dying galaxies, but a re-born one.

spacetelescope.org/images/heic0912a/

And look how many more distant galaxies are seen in the background.  Awesome.

It strikes me just how important relative scale is. If these phenomena were microscopic, or are viewed from a huge distance, they appear so beautiful. It's then hard to contemplate that they may also be showing masses of civilisations and enitre solar systems being wiped of life.

Fantastic imagery Jerry.
D you know why the last one has so many almost linear shapes in it? Especially near the top. It looks like it was taken with a shaky hand!

I wondered if that might be it but there seemed to be so many of them as to make me question it.
Thanks