The earliest known galaxy merger occurred shortly after the Big Bang
Telescopes show two distant blobs swirling around each other in the young universe
MAJOR MERGER Galaxy B14-65666 (shown) is split into two blobs, and is actually two galaxies merging, scientists think. This composite image from the ALMA telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope shows dust (red), oxygen (green), carbon (blue) and stars (white).
T. Hashimoto et al, Hubble Space Telescope/NASA and ESA, ALMA, ESO, NAOJ, NRAO