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THE CARTWHEEL GALAXY

We are the fruition of a process that stretches back to star-dust.
We are material in the hands of The Genius of the Universe for a still larger destiny that we cannot see in the everlasting rhythm of worlds.
                                - John Boodin

Picture Credit: NASA, Hubble Space Telescope 

The Cartwheel Galaxy shows a ring that is the result of a collision between a small and a large galaxy. After a small galaxy has moved through a big galaxy - in this case one that probably resembled our own Milky Way - a star formation wave moves out from the impact point like ripples across the surface of a pond. When galaxies collide it is rare that any two stars actually collide. Gravity, however, causes density waves to move out through the galaxy which in turn triggers the formation of hot, bright young stars, producing the ring that we see in this picture.