When Galaxies Collide …

Discovery News reports that the Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of a collision between two distant galaxy clusters. The crash occurred at such a high rate of speed that dark matter could actually be seen separating from ordinary matter:

The images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory show a clear separation between dark and ordinary matter during the clash 5.7 billion light-years from Earth, the U.S. space agency said Wednesday.

The astronomers were able to differentiate between the two substances with a technique known as gravitational lensing in which dark matter appears in blue in the image while ordinary matter, which is mostly in the form of hot gas, looks pink.

As the two clusters merged at speeds of millions of miles per hour, the hot gas in each cluster collided and slowed down, the astronomers said. The dark matter, however, did not.

5.7 billion light-years from Earth, in a galaxy far, far away, two worlds collide. It’s as if the universe were trying to write it’s own Hollywood blockbuster.