Borne also says the results of the Hubble data offer a snapshot of what conditions were like early in the universe, when galaxy collisions were commonplace. Evidence stacking up Ultra-luminous infrared galaxies were first detected by the IRAS satellite in the early 1980s. The infrared glow is caused by a firestorm of stars being created as the galaxies collide. Large amounts of dust absorb and re-radiate the light of the hot newborn stars. Early on, scientists noticed that the infrared galaxies were oddly shaped.
Most galaxies are spiral, like our own Milky Way, or they're round.
The infrared galaxies have long streamers of stars or protrusions. Borne says scientists suspected the galaxies might be misshapen because of the force of another nearby galaxy. Then in 1998, a team of Japanese scientists, Y. Taniguchi and Y. Shioya, theorized there might be even more than two galaxies involved. Borne's research has been submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of NASA and the European Space Agency.