Pan across NGC 5256

This video pans over NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations of the galaxy NGC 5256, about 350 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy is actually the result of two galaxies merging: the pan shows that the galaxy is composed of two disc galaxies whirling around each other in the last stage of a cosmic collision. In the process the gas from within the galaxies — coloured in red in this image — is thrown into space and performs a slow dance around the merging galactic nuclei.