The first images are in from the immense ALMA radio-telescope array, under construction at 16,500 feet in the Chilean desert, and they reveal a galactic collision of near-unimaginable violence and equally mind-boggling beauty.

The images show the collision of paired galaxies, NGC 4038/4039, which combine in what's become known as the Antennae formation. The two spiral galaxies that form the Antennae are merging into one, with the resulting compression of gas and dust birthing new stars.