There are many different kinds of galaxies. The picture on the side is of the Antennae Galaxies, NGC 4038 and NGC 4039. Scientifically, you could say that they're 'interacting' but I like to call it crashing. As far as location in the night's sky goes, it can be seen if you point your telescope towards the constellation Corvus.
This is the only galactic collision that we are currently aware of. It's quite obvious as to why they are called the Antennae Galaxies; the clouds of dust and gas swirling about it resemble the antennae of an insect. The end result of the collision is predicted to be a super galaxy. It is speculated that most galaxies go through one collision in their life time but seeing as a galaxy's life is quite long, this is the first one that was seen, and it was discovered in 1785 by Sir Frederich Wilhelm Herschel. It is suspected that our galaxy, the Milky Way, will collide with Andromeda since it is the closest to us and we are gradually moving more toward it.
It is assumed that they two galaxies were separate 1.2 billion years ago, one being a spiral galaxy, the other being a barred spiral galaxy.
It's a pretty nifty and interesting sight, is it not? When I saw the picture in class I knew I was going to do an entry on it because of how it fascinated me. It's the most unique, and thus my favoirte galaxy. Besides our own, of course.
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