How many galaxies are interacting here? This grouping of galaxies is called the Wild Triplate, not only for the discoverer, but for the number of bright galaxies that appear. A striking result of these giants jousting is a tremendous bridge of stars, gas, and dust that stretches between them, a bridge almost 200,000 light years long. Light we see today from Wild's Triplate left about 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. In perhaps a billion years or so, the two interacting galaxies will merge to form a single large spiral galaxy.