APOD 4.5

Today I chose to write about The Antennae, which is actually two very large galaxies that are colliding. This celestial event is taking place about 60 million light years away towards the constellation Corvus the Crow. This collision, unlike many on Earth, takes hundreds of millions of years to occur. During this time the massive amounts of molecular gas collide which creates very large areas of star formation. Long trails of gas can also be seen in this picture, which are the result of the combining tidal forces and gives this event the name The Antennae.