Narrator (April Hobart, CXC): VV 340, also known as Arp 302, is a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the very early stages of their interaction. Astronomers have named the edge-on galaxy at the top VV 340A, and VV 340B is the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image. Millions of years later these two spirals will merge - much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely do billions of years from now. Chandra data are being shown here with optical data from Hubble. VV 340 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.
Revised: August 11, 2011