"Hubble's Startling Image: Galaxies Colliding, Foreshadowing Milky Way's Fate"
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of two massive galaxies, NGC 6040 and LEDA 59642, in the process of colliding, forming the "monster merger" known as Arp 122. This collision, occurring 570 million light-years from Earth, could eventually create a singular structure over hundreds of millions of years. Astronomers believe that galactic mergers play a significant role in the formation of more massive galaxies and are connected to the process of star formation, but there is still much to learn about these epic collisions.