A violent collision of two galaxies appears to astronomers like a giant piece of candy, or perhaps a butterfly.
and halting it. The mixing of stellar material from two galaxies via collisions can birth giant molecular clouds of gas and dust that become sites of intense star formation. But, as this stunning image shows, these collisions can also create regions in which stellar birth is curtailed.
While star formation continues in the wings of this vast cosmic butterfly, which are made up of the two Taffy galaxies, the story is different in the red-hued body and tail of the butterfly. This body is composed of a vast bridge of material stretching between UGC 12914 and UGC 12915 that is highly turbulent in nature. Although this intergalactic bridge joining the galaxies is replete with the building blocks for star formation, the birth of stars is stopped by violent churning and heating.
As the Gemini North image shows, the region is made up of strands of red and brown — hydrogen clumps and molecular gas filaments — that stretch as the galaxies separate after their head-on collision. This creates the impression of a warm taffy being pulled apart. Collisions between galaxies can happen in several different ways with varying results. Sometimes theof larger galaxies are dragged toward smaller satellite galaxies eventually triggering a collision.
If both colliding galaxies lack the momentum to carry them away from the merger, they will mix and merge. As the clouds of gas in those galaxies interact, the gas can get compressed into dense patches thus triggering star formation.
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