Rethinking the Formation of the Milky Way

The formation of the Milky Way galaxy may have involved a merger with another galaxy 10 billion years ago, a new study finds.

Ten billion years ago, the Milky Way galaxy collided with a satellite galaxy, just as our family of stars began to take shape, new research reveals. Astronomers studied the ages of roughly 100 red giant stars around the Milky Way, using newly-developed techniques.

This new study could help us better understand both formation of the Milky Way, as well as the evolution of galaxies around the Cosmos.

Researchers found a fraction of stars currently in our galaxy came from this satellite galaxy, Gaia-Enceladus, while others were already in our nascent family of stars.

“Our evidence suggests that when the merger occurred, the Milky Way had already formed a large population of its own stars,” said Fiorenzo Vincenzo of Ohio State University’s Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

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