Picture of the Day - Crash of the Titans

NGC 520 ? also known as Arp 157 ? looks like a galaxy in the midst of exploding. In reality, it?s the exact opposite. Two enormous spiral galaxies are crashing into each other, melding and forming a new conglomerate.



This happens slowly, over millions of years ? the whole process started some 300 million years ago. The object, about 100 000 light-years across, is now in the middle stage of the merging process, as the two nuclei haven?t merged yet, but the two discs have. T [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24119/picture-of-the-day-crash-of-the-titans.html