Here's what it looks like when one galaxy passes right through another. The galaxy on the right has an expanding ring of stars (like a shockwave), while the other has been stretched out! And do forgive the low resolution of the image, these are 500 million light years away.
When the left galaxy passed through, the right galaxy would have been attracted to its own center due to the extra gravitational pull. After collisiding, the ring of material then expanded back out, likely because it still has orbital velocity and can escape its new, weak center
As with most galaxy collisions, the probably of a star-on-star collision is low, but I can imagine a lot of disturbed rocks flying around. Any advanced civilizations in the these galaxies probably have excellent astronomy funding
Name: Mayall's Object. Long credits on this one: NASA/ ESA/ STScI/AURA (The Hubble Heritage Team) - ESA/Hubble Collaboration/ University of Virginia, Charlottesville, NRAO, Stony Brook University (A. Evans)/ STScI (K. Noll)/ Caltech (J. Westphal). Source: esa.int/ESA_Multimedia…
There are many examples of galaxies interacting out there, here's more: sci.esa.int/web/hubble/-/4…. Credit: Hubble/NASA/ ESA/ STScI/AURA
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