Tag Archive for 'Virgo Radial Merger'

This image visualizes our Milky Way Galaxy and its surrounding halo of stars. The new Gaia data reveal that the wrinkles we see in the Milky Way were likely caused by a dwarf galaxy colliding with the Milky Way around 2.7 billion years ago. Our Galaxy’s two prominent satellite galaxies -- the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds -- are visible to the lower right, Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC / Donlon et al. / Stefan Payne-Wardenaar.

Milky Way’s Last Major Merger Occurred Billions of Years Later than Previously Thought

Jun 7, 2024 by News Staff

This discovery was made possible by ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, which is mapping more than a billion stars throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and beyond, tracking...

Stars identified by Donlon II et al. have formed shell structures in the aftermath of a radial merger occurring 3 billion years ago. Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Astronomers Find Shell Structures in Milky Way Galaxy for First Time

Oct 20, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, Flatiron Institute, and Queen’s University has spotted two...