Scientists have managed to capture the head-on collision of two galaxies 180 million light-years away from Earth.

The spectacular scene looks like a butterfly flapping its wings or a giant piece of candy.

The colliding galaxies, UGC 12914 and UGC 12915 have been nicknamed the ‘Taffy Galaxies’ as the shape of the collision resembles the famous brand of sweets.

Captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, this twisted shape is the result of a head-on collision that occurred about 25 million years before this image was captured.

A tenuous bridge composed of narrow molecular filaments, shown in brown, and clumps of hydrogen gas, shown in red, can be seen between the two galaxies. Its complex web structure resembles taffy being stretched as the pair slowly separates.

The Gemini North telescope, together with its Chile-based counterpart Gemini South, is one of the world’s most advanced telescopes detecting optical and infrared light.

Galaxy collisions are transformative events, largely responsible for driving the evolution of the Universe. The mixing and mingling of stellar material is an incredibly dynamic process that can lead to the formation of molecular clouds populated with newly forming stars.

However, this particular collision, 25–30 million years ago, appears to have resulted in a different kind of structure.

A bridge of highly turbulent gas devoid of significant star formation spans the gap between these two galaxies.

Galaxy collisions can happen for various reasons, often involving a larger galaxy and a smaller satellite galaxy.

As they drift near one another, the satellite galaxy can attract one of the larger galaxy’s primary spiral arms, pulling it out of its orbit. Or the satellite galaxy can actually intersect with the larger galaxy, causing significant distortions to its own structure.

In other cases, a collision can lead to a merger if neither member has enough momentum to continue on after colliding.

‘In all these scenarios, material from both galaxies mixes through a gradual combining and redistribution of gas, like two puddles of liquid that are slowly bleeding into each other. The resulting collecting and compression of the gas can then trigger star formation,’ according to a statement from the observatory.

‘A head-on collision, however, would be more like pouring liquid from two separate cups into a shared bowl,

When the Taffy Galaxies’ collided, their galactic disks and gaseous components smashed right into each other. This resulted in a massive injection of energy into the gas, causing it to become highly turbulent.

As the pair emerged from their collision, high-velocity gas was pulled from each galaxy, creating a massive gas bridge between them. The turbulence of the stellar material throughout the bridge is now prohibiting the collection and compression of gas that are required to form new stars.

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