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According to scientists, the Milky Way was disturbed by a collision with another smaller galaxy.
About 700 million years ago – relatively recently, by the standards of the universe – the Milky Way suffered an accident that left a long-lasting mark on its shape, scientists say. The discovery changes our understanding of the evolution of our galaxy and its history, they say.
For a long time, our Milky Way was seen as relatively static or fell out of balance. Instead, it is undergoing wild contortions due to a collision with a smaller galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC.
The effects of that cosmic crash are still visible today, the researchers say, in the way they disrupted the very fabric of the galaxy itself.
The astronomers were able to explore how the LMC deformed the motion of the Milky Way using a statistical model that allowed them to calculate the speed of the furthest departures into the Milky Way.
They found that the galaxy was not moving to where the LMC currently is, as previously thought, but to where it was in its past. Looks like he’s trying to catch a runaway train and has disappeared.
The LMC lives as a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and can be seen as a faint cloud in the southern hemisphere’s night sky.
But what is not seen is the halo of dark matter that surrounds it and our Milky Way, revealed by recent research. Although those particles are invisible, they can be examined through their effects on the stars and the gases surrounding them.
The halo of dark matter seems to contort the Milky Way’s disk, pulling it towards the constellation of Pegasus. The strange direction appears to be a result of the fact that the LMC itself is moving even faster than the Milky Way.
“This discovery definitely breaks the spell that our galaxy is in some sort of state of equilibrium. In fact, the recent fall of the CML is causing violent disturbances on the Milky Way, “said Jorge Peñarrubia, Personal Chair of Gravitational Dynamics, School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, where the research was conducted.
“Understanding these can give us unprecedented insight into the distribution of dark matter in both galaxies.”
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