* Astronomy

Hubble Sees Spiral Bridge of Young Stars Between Two Ancient Galaxies

Astronomers routinely use the crisp view of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study all kinds of intricate details in galaxy clusters. By now you would think they've seen it all - but nature always has new surprises in store.
The latest is an uncanny 100,000-light-year-long structure that looks like a string of pearls twisted into a corkscrew shape that winds around the cores of two colliding galaxies. Astronomers don't quite know how to explain the origin and ultimate fate of the object, but the answer must be extraordinary, say scientists.
The Slinky-structure's unique morphology may yield new insights into the formation of stellar superclusters, the merger-driven growth of galaxies, and gas dynamics in the rarely seen merger process of two giant elliptical galaxies.
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