Photo #2 (July 2008)

Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.
                                          - Jose Ortega y Gasset 

Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA) -
ESA/Hubble Collaboration, & A. Evans (UVa, NRAO, SUNYSB)

Galaxies don't normally look like this. NGC 3256 actually shows a current picture of two galaxies that are slowly colliding. Quite possibly, in hundreds of millions of years, only one galaxy will remain. Today, however, NGC 3256 shows intricate filaments of dark dust, unusual tidal tails of stars, and a peculiar center that contains two distinct nuclei. Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies will directly collide, the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. NGC 3256, part of the vast Hydra-Centaurus supercluster of galaxies, spans over 100 thousand light-years across and is located about 100 million light-years away.

Civilzations appear to be on collision courses that could destroy our planet. Our greatest challenge today is to transcend the differences that divide us so that we can work together to stop the global heating, the pollution, and the reckless wasting of our natural and human resources that threaten our continued existence.
                             - Daniel Benor