  New Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet and optical imaging of the
strong-lensing galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414 (z=0.335) reveals two centrally
dominant elliptical galaxies participating in an ongoing major merger. The
interaction is at least somewhat rich in cool gas, as the merger is associated
with a complex network of nineteen massive superclusters of young stars (or
small tidal dwarf galaxies) separated by ~1 kpc in projection from one another,
combining to an estimated total star formation rate of ~5 solar masses per
year. The resolved young stellar superclusters are threaded by narrow H-alpha,
[O II], and blue excess filaments arranged in a network spanning ~27 kpc across
the two merging galaxies. This morphology is strongly reminiscent of the
well-known "beads on a string" mode of star formation observed on kpc-scales in
the arms of spiral galaxies, resonance rings, and in tidal tails between
interacting galaxies. Nevertheless, the arrangement of this star formation
relative to the nuclei of the two galaxies is difficult to interpret in a
dynamical sense, as no known "beads on a string" systems associated with
kpc-scale tidal interactions exhibit such lopsided morphology relative to the
merger participants. In this Letter we present the images and follow-up
spectroscopy, and discuss possible physical interpretations for the unique
arrangement of the young stellar clusters. While we suggest that this
morphology is likely to be dynamically short-lived, a more quantitative
understanding awaits necessary multiwavelength follow-up, including optical
integral field spectroscopy, ALMA sub-mm interferometry, and Chandra X-ray
imaging.

Astrophysics of Galaxies