In a distant corner of the Universe, some 45 million lightyears away, billions of stars are dancing a celestial waltz. They are spinning, gyrating and pirouetting around and, if you squint, their collective flailing looks like the antennae of an insect. It is from this striking appearance that this ancient group of stars gets its name: the Antennae Galaxies.
The plural is a clue to their true origin. This is not a single galaxy, but two in the process of merging. Galaxy mergers like these are the lifeblood of the Universe, building the enormous structures that dominate the cosmos to this day. More than that, galaxy collisions and mergers could have helped make the Universe a more life-friendly place. It isn't too much of stretch to say that we wouldn't be here without them. And yet, for something so crucial, astronomers have only recently started to pull back
