The two large spiral galaxies have been nicknamed "The Mice" because of the long tails of stars and gas emanating from each one.

Otherwise known as NGC 4676, they are located about 300 million light-years away, in the constellation Coma Berenices.

They are thought to be members of the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which is one of the densest clusters known, containing over 1,000 identified galaxies.

Their long tails are drawn out by strong gravitational tides as the two galaxies pass through one another, according to NASA.

The distances are so large that the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion, over hundreds of millions of years.

The image was captured by astrophotographer Bruce Waddington over six nights in May 2019, using the SkyPi Remote Observatory in New Mexico.

Not often imaged in small telescopes, Waddington used a wide field of view to catch the galaxies' faint tidal tails, which are several hundred thousand light-years long.

"They will probably collide again and again over the next billion years until they coalesce to form a single galaxy," he wrote for NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

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