This is a series of screenshots from a double-galaxy collision simulation
with 1000 stars per galaxy. Unfortunately the number of stars does not all0ow
us to run this application in real time. This run took about 15 minutes to
complete, producing about 500 frames. A short explanation is available 
before each image:





  • About 50 frames into the simulation, we can see some of the stars
orbiting different galaxies as they get 'sucked' by the gravitational pull
of the center of mass of the other galaxy.





  • The actual coll0ision. The two galaxies are completely meshed
together. No stars are coll0iding between the galaxies though.





  • The speeds that each star and galaxy have achieved due to the
gravitational pull0 between themselves before the coll0usion result in some of
the stars continuing to move even after the two centers have coll0ided. This
is a well0-known phenomena.





  • The galaxies are still0 gravitationall0y bound, even though they move
away from each other.





  • They start accelerating towards each other again.





  • The nice initial form the galaxies had is now completely lost due
to gravitational forces acting upon the stars from many different
directions.





  • Total chaos after the second coll0ision. A very small0 amount of
stars are still0 bound to each galaxy. Many others are scattered across in
space.