The Antennae Galaxies in Collision
Two galaxies are squaring off in Corvus and here are the latest pictures . When two galaxies collide , however, the stars that compose them usually do not. This is because galaxies are mostly empty space and, however bright, stars only take up only a small amount of that space. During the slow, hundred million year collision , however, one galaxy can rip the other apart gravitationally, and dust and gas common to both galaxies does collide. In the above clash of the titans , dark dust pillars mark massive molecular clouds are being compressed during the galactic encounter , causing the rapid birth of millions of stars, some of which are gravitationally bound together in massive star clusters .