One of the big mysteries in astronomy is how galaxies grow and evolve over time. Collisions between galaxies are thought to be key events that shape their development. A stunning collection of 59 new images of colliding galaxies has been released to mark the 18th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. They give us a unique insight into how galaxies collide to form larger galaxies.

Credit:

ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

Narration:
Dr. J

Design:
Martin Kornmesser

Web Technical Support:
Lars Holm Nielsen
Raquel Yumi Shida

Cinematographer:
Peter Rixner (www.perix.de)

Script:
Lars Lindberg Christensen, Raquel Yumi Shida

Director:
Lars Lindberg Christensen

Acknowledgements for the images used in this Hubblecast:

* Project lead: Lars Lindberg Christensen
* Image processing: Davide de Martin (ESA/Hubble) and Zolt Levay (STScI)
* Cosmetic cleaning: Amit Kapadia, Nuno Marques, Maximilian Kaufl (ESA/Hubble)
* Colour correction and cosmetic adjustments: Zolt Levay (STScI) & Martin Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)
* HST Principle Investigator: A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook), and the PIs of Hubble Proposals 9735, 11091, 6276, 10575, 7129, 7467, 6438.
* Astronomical processing pipeline: The STScI ACS team
* Data Archiving and pipeline implementation: The ESO/ST-ECF Archive and the STScI Archive

Learn more at http://www.esa.int

This video has been released in the public domain by the ESA and all credit is to ESA for the production of this material.