I whole-heartedly agree with this statement and the leaps and bounds we as a human race would take working WITH each other instead of AGAINST each other would be amazingly huge. Alas, we cannot seem to manage to break ourselves from the ridiculous desire of always trying to be richer and more powerful than the next guy.

... but how exactly is it that 2 planetary bodies can collide, and "merge" into one larger planetary body? Wouldn't the collision obliterate both planets?

When installing, make sure the install directory does NOT say "Beta 4" or "Beta 5" after it. I believe the actual release should just read Firefox 3. All the above linked addresses do are forward you to mirrors which MAY or MAY NOT have the correct install on them.