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Antennae Galaxies

Photo: A pair of glowing, merging galaxies

A Hubble Space Telescope image shows unprecedented detail of the Antennae galaxies, an intense star-forming region created when two galaxies began to collide some 200 million to 300 million years ago. The bright, blue-white areas show newly formed stars surrounded by clouds of hydrogen, which are colored pink. A similar collision is expected between our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the nearby Andromeda galaxy in several billion years.

Photograph courtesy NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration