Colliding Galaxies

You know what.. galaxies are just an astounding piece of nature! I am just left amazed whenever I see pictures of them. They are so pretty... and the size of them.. absolutely mind boggling. Still there seems such an order in their huge size, weight, stars, gravity and dark matter!

Hubble Telescope has released some new images and they provide breath taking aftermath of galaxies after their collision!

(All pictures and text below courtesy Space.com)

"Galaxy mergers are now known to be more common than was previously thought. They were even more common in the early universe than they are today. The early universe was smaller, so galaxies were closer together and therefore more prone to smash-ups. Even apparently isolated galaxies can show signs of past mergers in their internal structure."

"This game of celestial bumper cars is driven by the gravitational pulls that galaxies exert on one another. Typically the first sign of a collision is a bridge of matter connecting two galaxies as gravity's first gentle tugs tease out dust and gas. As the outer reaches of the galaxies begin to interact, long streamers of gas and dust, called tidal tails, sweep back to wrap around the galactic cores."

You know in some million years.. our galaxy 'Milky Way' will split by our giant neighbor 'Andromeda'?! That should be fun! :p By the way our galaxy is a cannibal too! Scientist also say that the universe is expanding.. and in future there will be no stars in our night sky because every galaxy would have drifted apart. Why do galaxies have to act like humans?