Dark CollisionsThis is what it looks like when 72 galaxy clusters collide. The image, made by combining an x-ray view with visible light data, isn't just a pretty picture: Researchers use images like this to study how dark matter interacts with itself.

Photograph by X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland/D.Harvey & NASA/CXC/Durham Univ/R.Massey; Optical & Lensing Map: NASA, ESA, D. Harvey (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and R. Massey (Durham University, UK)

Week's Best Space Pictures: A Storm Swirls and Dark Matter Collides

A typhoon menaces the Philippines, and galaxies—and their dark matter—collide.

ByJane J. Lee

Photo gallery byMallory Benedict

April 3, 2015

This is what it looks like when 72 galaxy clusters collide. The image, made by combining an x-ray view with visible light data, isn't just a pretty picture: Researchers use images like this to study how dark matter interacts with itself.