What happens when two galaxies collide? Surprisingly — not necessarily the destruction of both. Most often such collisions lead to the formation of a new, larger galaxies, such as, for example, in the picture above.
This image was obtained by the camera Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, installed on the space telescope “Hubble”. Interestingly, astronomers have long believed that two structures in the photo are from a single galaxy, known as NGC 6052. But as it turned out later, this is still the result of two galaxies located about 230 light years from Earth, near the constellation of Hercules.
Two galaxies at some point in their history were pulled together by their gravitational forces, creating a new giant space structure. Scientists from the European space Agency say that the new formed galaxy “looks rather like a mess, but after some time will acquire a stable form, having the back divided in two galaxies”.