In visible light images , long, luminous, tendril-like structures emanating from the wreckage lend the pair their popular moniker, the Antennae Galaxies . Galactic collisions are now thought to be fairly common, but when they happen individual stars rarely collide. Instead gas and dust clouds merge and compress, triggering furious bursts of massive star formation with thousands of resulting supernovae. The exploding stars litter the scene with bubbles of shocked hot gas and collapsed stellar cores . Transfixed by this cosmic accident astronomers watch and are beginning to appreciate the collision-driven evolution of galaxies , not unlike our own .
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