page_title: Antennae galaxies
hierarchical_section_title: Antennae galaxies
context_page_description: The Antennae galaxies are colliding. They are in the constellation Corvus. The process takes hundreds of millions of years.
  The collision, with its clouds of gas, dust and magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation. This is their starburst phase. They were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.
  They are in the NGC 4038 group with five other galaxies. Before The Collsion, NGC 4038 was a barred spiral galaxy and NGC 4039 was a spiral galaxy. These two galaxies are known as the Antennae galaxies because they have two long tails of stars, gas and dust ejected from the galaxies as a result of tidal force in the collision. The nuclei of the two galaxies are joining to become one giant galaxy.
  These interacting galaxies are nearer the Milky Way than previously thought—at 45 million light-years instead of 65 million light-years.
context_section_description: The Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/NGC 4039) are colliding. They are in the constellation Corvus. The process takes hundreds of millions of years.
  The collision, with its clouds of gas, dust and magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation. This is their starburst phase. They were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.
  They are in the NGC 4038 group with five other galaxies. Before The Collsion,NGC 4038 was a barred spiral galaxy and NGC 4039 was a spiral galaxy. These two galaxies are known as the Antennae galaxies because they have two long tails of stars, gas and dust ejected from the galaxies as a result of tidal force in the collision. The nuclei of the two galaxies are joining to become one giant galaxy.
  These interacting galaxies are nearer the Milky Way than previously thought—at 45 million light-years instead of 65 million light-years.
caption: Ground-based telescopic view of the Antennae galaxies
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