Login With Google
Milky Way’s formation decoded
Why is it in news?
- Based on data from the Gaia space observatory scientists said that the Milky Way, home to our sun and billions of other stars, merged with another smaller galaxy in a colossal cosmic collision roughly 10 billion years ago.
More in news
- Star formation: The union of the Milky Way and the so-called dwarf galaxy Gaia-Enceladus increased our galaxy’s mass by about a quarter and triggered a period of accelerated star formation lasting about 2 to 4 billion years.
- Galactic mergers:(1) Galaxies of all types, including the Milky Way, began to form relatively soon after the Big Bang explosion that marked the beginning of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago.(2) But these were generally smaller than those seen today and were forming stars at a rapid rate.(3) Subsequent galactic mergers were instrumental in configuring galaxies existing now.
- Possibilities after merger: The distances between stars in a galaxy are so huge- a galaxy is basically empty space- that the two galaxies intermix, change their global shape, more star formation may happen in one, and maybe the small one stops forming stars.
Source
The Hindu