The Antennae
This photograph captured two galaxies, NGC 4038 and NGC 4030, colliding, an event that takes hundreds of millions of years to complete. This is all happening 60 million light-years away, in the southern constellation, Corvus, and it spans about 500 light-years! The two galaxies' large clouds and molecular gas are furiously combining, resulting in wild episodes of star formation. However, the already formed stars in the galaxies are not combining. What appear to be two arms of the galaxy in this photo, is actually matter being flung extremely far by gravitation tidal forces. It is from these outward spirals that the combined galaxy got its name- The Antennae.
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