Science Art: When (Neutron) Stars Collide, by NASA

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There’s not much information on the NASA Image of the Day site explaining how this visualization was made. It’s meant to show what it looks like in space when two neutron stars – very dense, huge objects – slam into each other.

This is actually seconds *before* they collide, when their gravity starts stripping off debris from each other, forming a massive cloud of dust. Then, impact.

From a safe distance, it looks a little like a chrysanthemum….