Hubble solves merger mystery from Milky Way's early years
Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way in the earliest phases of its evolution. This finding extends our knowledge of our galaxy's history 1.8 billion years farther back in time than before. The results are published…
The Milky Way, our home galaxy, has grown significantly over time by merging with smaller galaxies. Using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have now found evidence of an earlier merger that took place 11.8 billion years ago, just 2 billion years after the Big Bang. This merger involved a dwarf galaxy called LKH, which contained roughly 500 million times the mass of the sun in stars.
This discovery extends our understanding of the Milky Way's history by 1.8 billion years. By studying globular clusters, which contain some of the oldest stars in the galaxy, researchers were able to identify a distinct population that originated from the LKH merger. This finding suggests that stars from external galaxies played a more significant role in the Milky Way's formation than previously thought.
Further studies using Hubble and other spacecraft data will continue to unravel the intricate history of our galaxy.
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- Hubble Solves Merger Mystery From Milky Way’s Early Years science.nasa.gov
