The Milky Way may once have swallowed a dwarf galaxy

Astronomers believe they've mapped an important sequence of events that shaped our galaxy 10 billion years ago. In a paper published in Nature Astronomy today, researchers from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) share their findings that a dwarf galaxy, Gaia-Enceladus, once collided and merged with the early Milky Way. Their discovery offers a new understanding of how the Milky Way formed.

Astronomers previously believed that the galaxy was made of two separate sets of stars, but exactly how or when they came together was a mystery. Using the Gaia space telescope, these researchers were able to take more precise measurements of the position, brightness and distance of roughly one million stars. They also looked at the density of "metals," or elements without hydrogen or helium, that the stars contain. The researchers determined that both sets of stars are about the same age but that one was set into "chaotic motion," evidence of a galaxy collision.

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[blee]

holy cow... I was just swallowing a Milky Way(candy, not galaxy) when I saw this video being posted... :(

[sungodra]

We're on our way to being swallowed by the Andromeda galaxy... what else is new?

[nasimhaider]

1:58 looks like Yin and Yang for a moment

[doniscoming]

don't EAT? WTF is with these food references. They combined, merged with each other?

[trejt]

Given that the cosmos is infinite, I don't see why we are so egocentric as to think our known universe was the only one and that it was created by a single big bang. Why can't there have been, and continue to be, untold numbers of big bangs outside of the space we know? I realize that much of our understanding comes from light that has traveled for billions of years to reach us and that it would seem that if there were universes beyond ours that we would see their light, like we see our most distant stars, but I believe the ”explosion” (or rapid expansion if you will) of OUR big bang repelled light away from our universe as it blew outwards such that we wouldn't see other universes until after the known universe stopped expanding and then only after billions of years.

[eug]

What is the name of the music playing on the video?

[Jitender.Chauhan]

2 trillion years ago? Our universe is only 14 billion years old..

[CoachForsyth]

May have, might have, possibly, okay then publish it has almost a fact guess thingy, and the people will never know...lol

[Malinplayz]

Where is the Sausage galaxy and the Pontus galaxy in this cataclysmic discussion about Cataclysmic collisions and Tidal forced Galactic Cannibalism?

[PEACEMAKER]

Milky Way pick on someone your own size LOL or was it the first happy meal LOL

[Hoopergames]

I thought this said galactic cannabis
Space weed would probably make to transcend the third dimension

[TonyLeviosa]

Its premature to think we won't be here in 4 billion years. Our technology and way of life will be so far advanced we will have of course, migrated to other planets, but this is still our progenitor birthplace. I am sure we will still have Humans and possibly other alien species inhabiting Planet Earth.

Technology will be what will ensure our survivability.

[forgottensailor]

This isn't tech related guys..it's science/space. Stick to your focus or I'm going to unsubscribe.