Gaia Sausage
The Milky Way’s Last Merger Event Was More Recent Than Thought
The Milky Way is only as massive as it is because of collisions and mergers with other galaxies. This is…
6 months ago
Did the Last Great Galactic Merger Create the Milky Way's Bar?
About 8-11 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy merged with the Milky Way, adding 50 billion solar masses of stars,…
1 year ago
Part of the Milky Way Is Much Older Than Previously Believed
The Milky Way is older than astronomers thought, or part of it is. A newly-published study shows that part of…
3 years ago
A Detailed Scan of the Milky Way Finds Possible “Fossil” Spiral Arms
New research has revealed previously unknown wispy structures in the Milky Way disk that could offer clues about the history…
3 years ago
Astronomers Find the Hollowed-Out Shell of a Dwarf Galaxy that Collided With the Milky Way Billions of Years Ago
In 2005 astronomers found a dense grouping of stars in the Virgo constellation. It looked like a star cluster, except…
4 years ago
A Stellar Stream of Stars, Stolen from Another Galaxy
Modern professional astronomers aren't much like astronomers of old. They don't spend every suitable evening with their eyes glued to…
4 years ago