Another source of movies is Joshua Barnes' Galaxy Transformations Page at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy . Blue stars indicate sites of recent massive star formation, and dark dust clouds can be seen in silhouette against the inner parts of the two galaxies. Starbursts Case of intense star formation in a galaxy. Exhausts the available gas in a few Myrs. The most intense starbursts occur in violently interacting galaxy pairs.
Gas clouds collide and form new stars.
Mergers may play a pivotal role in the formation of galaxies, as we'll see in a later lecture. Gas and stars get incorporated into the larger galaxy. Nuclei of the galaxies slowly spiral together. May have grown by eating their smaller companion galaxies. Eventually, only 1 galaxy may remain behind, most likely an Elliptical galaxy.