Antennae Galaxies Collide in Beautiful Slow Motion

NASA’s Great Observatories — Chandra, Spitzer, and Hubble — have collaborated on this magnificent composite image of the Antennae Galaxies, a pair of galaxies that are merging with each other in a 100-million-year-long fireworks display.

Chandra’s image shows hot, element-rich gas in the X-ray spectrum; Spitzer shows the infrared, with warm dust clouds in the region of stars being born amid the collision; and Hubble shows older stars.