WHEN GALAXIES COLLIDE

We live in the Milky Way Galaxy, a spiral galaxy home to about 300 million stars. Since we live in it, we cannot see it from the outside; what we see looking up the clear night sky is the galactic centre.

Andromeda, the nearest major galaxy some 2.5 million light years away, is also a spiral galaxy and is expected to collide with the galaxy we live in, in about 3.75 billion years to perform the beautiful death dance of galaxies.

The pictures: The Milky Way Galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, when galaxies collide.