Four-Galaxy Collision

I think I see Michael Jackson's ghost. Can you see him smiling to the right of the blue stars?

Actually, ted, the grouping to the left of the blue stars looks like MJ, if the artists from Coraline had designed it. Otherwise, a very inspiring photograph.

The Chandra gets such good images, with a little help from the Hawaiian scope, one wonders why we need Hubble anymore.

And that folks, is why I want to help expand our horizons to the outer reaches of space.

A dumb question, but how do the experts know the four galaxies are not merely aligned with each other when veiwed from our vantage point?

buma, there are several ways to check that, one of the best ones is redshift - it's, roughly, a measure of distance along line of sight. If they have similar redshifts, then they are interacting.
You can look for signs of interaction - see that bright blue bumpy strip in the middle? that's star formation triggered by the interaction!

I do merger of galaxies for a living. any questions, please dont hesitate!

You do merger of galaxies for a living? Do you charge by the galaxy, or the number of stars in the galaxy?

Think of the insurance claims on that one.

See what happens when they don't use their turn signals!

That's a gorgeous picture! I'm gonna set it as my wallpaper