Gaia Sausage

Did the Last Great Galactic Merger Create the Milky Way's Bar?

About 8-11 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy merged with the Milky Way, adding 50 billion solar masses of stars,…

4 months ago

Part of the Milky Way Is Much Older Than Previously Believed

The Milky Way is older than astronomers thought, or part of it is. A newly-published study shows that part of…

2 years ago

A Detailed Scan of the Milky Way Finds Possible “Fossil” Spiral Arms

New research has revealed previously unknown wispy structures in the Milky Way disk that could offer clues about the history…

2 years ago

Astronomers Find the Hollowed-Out Shell of a Dwarf Galaxy that Collided With the Milky Way Billions of Years Ago

In 2005 astronomers found a dense grouping of stars in the Virgo constellation. It looked like a star cluster, except…

3 years ago

A Stellar Stream of Stars, Stolen from Another Galaxy

Modern professional astronomers aren't much like astronomers of old. They don't spend every suitable evening with their eyes glued to…

4 years ago