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This is an image of

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something called the Antennae
galaxies discovered by William Herschel.

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About 45 million
light years away from our Milky Way.

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These are actually two galaxies
that are in the process of merging.

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They will end up eventually
as one bigger galaxy,

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We have the privilege of catching it
with this brilliant Hubble

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Space Telescope image
during the process of merging.

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So what you can see
here is a lot of activity.

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First of all, you see a lot of light.

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This is from starlight blended together

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and you can see at the core of one galaxy

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and the other down here
with a lot of blended starlight.

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But you also see disrupted structure.

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You know, a few hundred million years ago
these were two separate spiral galaxies.

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Now they are in the process of merging
and that spiral structure

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has been disrupted by the gravitational
pulls between the two galaxies.

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And not only that, but that disruption has stirred up a lot of the gas

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and the dust that were within
each of the independent galaxies.

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And that stirring up actually compresses
some of the gas and incites

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new star formation
at a very vigorous pace.

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So the bright purple light here
that we see all around

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this pair of merging galaxies are nebulae

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that are really very energetically forming
stars.

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Their light is ionizing
the surrounding gas.

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It's creating these beautiful colors.

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You can also see lots and lots of dust

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in these regions as the galaxies merge.

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So we call this a star burst
because it's a burst of star formation

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that's being incited and excited
by the merging process of these two

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originally independent galaxies.

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There’s so much material in this starburst process that's being compressed that it enables

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not just individual isolated stars to
form, but whole clusters of stars to form.

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And that creates
a lot of energetic radiation

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that can then light up the surrounding gas
that's left over

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and just makes for a brilliant picture
of vibrant star formation.

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So catching this in the act with Hubble,

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I think is is a wonderful gift
and achievement.

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And I love looking at
this picture for that reason.