Merging Galaxies Antennae Galaxies - Desk Ornament Award

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A stunning outer space picture featuring two merging galaxies, known as the Antennae Galaxies - NGC4038 and NGC4039. As these galaxies hurtle through each other, billions of new stars are forced to precipitate out of the gas and dust clouds by the bunching and heating that's caused by the massive gravitic interactions. These tend to occur in clusters, the brightest and most condensed of them being known as super star clusters. image code: agmcssc Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: B. Whitmore ( Space Telescope Science Institute) and James Long (ESA/Hubble).