Posted on by Evan Gough

Gaia Spots an Enormous Ghost Galaxy Right Next Door that’s Being Dismantled by the Milky Way

From left to right: Large Magellanic Cloud, the Milky Way, and Antlia 2, our next door neighbor and so-called ghost galaxy. Credit: V. Belokurov based on the images by Marcus and Gail Davies and Robert Gendler
From left to right: Large Magellanic Cloud, the Milky Way, and Antlia 2, our next door neighbor and so-called ghost galaxy. Credit: V. Belokurov based on the images by Marcus and Gail Davies and Robert Gendler

Astronomers combing through data from the ESA’s Gaia spacecraft have discovered what they’re calling a ghost galaxy. The galaxy, named Antlia 2 (Ant 2) is an extremely low-density dwarf galaxy that was formed in the early days of the universe. And it is being stripped of its mass by the tidal forces of the Milky Way.
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