NGC 7331, the galaxy at the upper right of the picture, is one of the brightest galaxies in the universe. Nearly 50 million lightyears away, it is very similar in size and shape to our own galaxy. In the lower left, Stephan's Quintet is a cluster of five galaxies about 300 million lightyears away, four of which make up the first ever recorded collision of galaxies. The four colliding galaxies are involved in a cosmic dance that will eventually end with them merging into one large galaxy. You would think that many of the stars in these galaxies would collide also, but in fact, the distance between stars in any galaxy (which average between 5-10 lightyears) makes the chances of this happening nearly zero.
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