Galaxy collisions are spectacular events whenever they are observed, but the collision astronomers have discovered recently in the far reaches of our Universe has definitely surpassed them all.

We are talking about a “quad-collision”, or four galaxies merging together in what appears to be the largest astronomical event of such type.

Usually, astronomers spot dual collisions- collisions between two asymmetric galaxies, in which the bigger one “absorbs” the smaller one, during the course of a hundred million years.

However, the super-galaxy that was born when the four separate smaller galaxies hit each other probably took more than 100 million years, according to Kenneth Rines of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, who has led the team of scientists.

"Most galaxy mergers are like small pickup trucks filled with sand colliding," explained Kenneth Rines. "This big merger is like two big rigs full of sand colliding and flinging sand everywhere. In this case, the sand represents stars."

To scale the proportions of the colossal cataclysm that involved three Milky Way-sized galaxies and a bigger one estimated to have a mass three times larger than our own galaxy, astronomers used the Spitzer telescope and optical images from the WIYN Observatory in Arizona, US. "This is the largest major merger in terms of total stellar mass," Rines told New Scientist.

The collision did not appear as obvious from the beginning, but astronomers were puzzled by a gigantic, fan-shaped 'plume' of old red stars that appeared at preliminary analysis. It turns out that the massive “star-spray” was trailing the merger-point some 360,000 light years away, apparently tossed out of the galaxies as they spiraled towards each other. "That's the other fairly amazing thing- the number of stars in the plume is about three Milky Ways' worth," said Rines. "It seems as if there are several galaxies-worth of stars being thrown out by this collision, so an incredible amount of material is being tossed out." said the Cambridge-based astronomer.

The collision took place inside a galactic cluster known as CL0958+4702, which lies about 5 billion light years from Earth. According to scientists, roughly 100 million years were needed for the new mammoth galaxy to form, and we are only seeing what happened 5 billion years ago, not the current dimensions of the super massive star-gathering.

"If we could see this cluster as it is today, that merger would be long over," Rines explains, adding that it would resemble the behemoths observed at the heart of nearby clusters.

"It's the first one that I know about. So far, nobody has written to me to say they've found another four-way merger. It's a first to have four galaxies merging."

Rines added that the plume of stars that eventually led to this unique discovery was probably split in half: the closest stars to the galactic nuclei have fallen under the gravity of the new behemoth, while the other half still roams freely in the Universe as you are reading this very interesting article.

Galaxy collisions are a common occurrence in the universe. Our own Milky Way is fated to collide and merge with its neighbor, Andromeda, in about 5 billion years.