Remains of Another Galaxy Are Found Within the Milky Way
Flow of Aquarium An international team of astronomers has discovered a new stream of stars in the Milky Way, another remnant of a smaller galaxy that was drawn and incorporated by the gravitational pull of our own galaxy.
The chain was named "Flow of Aquarius," or "Aquarius Stream".
This attraction, fatal to another galaxy, must have occurred some 700 million years, scientists estimate.
This makes the flow of Aquarius extremely young - the other streams of stars known to have billions of years old are located on the outskirts of our galaxy.
Unlike all streams of stars known, the flow of Aquarius is in the galactic disk, where a high concentration of stars in the Milky Way makes it difficult to identify them.
"He's right on our doorstep, we simply could not see him," said Dr.
Mary Williams, of the Astrophysical Institute of Potsdam, who led the research, conducted at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
Galaxy collisions The discovery is part of a campaign called RAVE, which aims to track up to 1 million new stars of the Milky Way by 2012 in an attempt to understand the process of formation of our galaxy.
The RAVE project (Radial Velocity Experiment) is called by astronomers the "galactic archeology, and is collecting data over the whole sky in search of information about the history of the formation of the Milky Way.
"We want to discover what was the frequency of these events merging with neighboring galaxies in the past and how can we expect in the future," explains Dr.
Matthias Steinmetz, project RAVE´s coordinator.
But one thing seems certain: within about three billion years the Milky Way will have its next big collision with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy - that if any of the dwarf galaxies discovered in recent years in our cosmic neighborhood does not come first.
The Legend of Milk Way The word galaxy comes from the Greek term for our galaxy, galaxies (γαλαξίας) or kyklos Galaktika, meaning "milky circle" because of its appearance in the sky.
In Greek mythology, Zeus placed her child conceived with a mortal, the little Hercules, within Hera as she slept, so that drinking divine milk, the boy would become immortal.
Hera woke up and noticed that was breast-feeding a unknown baby: the goddess pushed the baby and a stream of her milk has spread across the night sky, producing light off the track known as the Milky Way.
The chain was named "Flow of Aquarius," or "Aquarius Stream".
This attraction, fatal to another galaxy, must have occurred some 700 million years, scientists estimate.
This makes the flow of Aquarius extremely young - the other streams of stars known to have billions of years old are located on the outskirts of our galaxy.
Unlike all streams of stars known, the flow of Aquarius is in the galactic disk, where a high concentration of stars in the Milky Way makes it difficult to identify them.
"He's right on our doorstep, we simply could not see him," said Dr.
Mary Williams, of the Astrophysical Institute of Potsdam, who led the research, conducted at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
Galaxy collisions The discovery is part of a campaign called RAVE, which aims to track up to 1 million new stars of the Milky Way by 2012 in an attempt to understand the process of formation of our galaxy.
The RAVE project (Radial Velocity Experiment) is called by astronomers the "galactic archeology, and is collecting data over the whole sky in search of information about the history of the formation of the Milky Way.
"We want to discover what was the frequency of these events merging with neighboring galaxies in the past and how can we expect in the future," explains Dr.
Matthias Steinmetz, project RAVE´s coordinator.
But one thing seems certain: within about three billion years the Milky Way will have its next big collision with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy - that if any of the dwarf galaxies discovered in recent years in our cosmic neighborhood does not come first.
The Legend of Milk Way The word galaxy comes from the Greek term for our galaxy, galaxies (γαλαξίας) or kyklos Galaktika, meaning "milky circle" because of its appearance in the sky.
In Greek mythology, Zeus placed her child conceived with a mortal, the little Hercules, within Hera as she slept, so that drinking divine milk, the boy would become immortal.
Hera woke up and noticed that was breast-feeding a unknown baby: the goddess pushed the baby and a stream of her milk has spread across the night sky, producing light off the track known as the Milky Way.