Space
Galaxies collide

NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

Four galaxies are slamming into each other to form a single massive galaxy 10 times larger than the Milky Way. The collision is flinging billions of stars out into the universe, according to Kenneth Rines of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., and colleagues, who published their findings Aug. 1 in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Such collisions are common in the universe, Rines and colleagues say, but this is far bigger than usual and is the largest ever recorded. The galaxies are about 5 billion light-years away.

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