immense clouds of dust and gas, galaxies are still mostly empty space. Even in a head-on collision between two galaxies it is unlikely that any stars would strike each other, although the event would distort the galaxies’ shapes and might produce asymmetric features like those seen here. 
    Other types of infrared observa- tions have shown unusual events occurring in this galaxy. It is an unusually strong source of Brackett gamma, an infrared emission similar to H alpha produced by hot clouds of ionized hydrogen. Maffei 2 is also a much stronger source of far infrared radiation than most spiral galaxies, indicating that it has large quantities of “hot” dust. In astronomical terms, hot means temperatures of about 50 degrees