News Astronomy

The Milky Way feasted on a smaller galaxy 10 billion years ago

The doomed galaxy’s stars still roam the sky, moving in the opposite direction of other stars

Milky Way illustration

GOBBLE GOBBLE  The young Milky Way, shown in an artist’s impression, swallowed a smaller galaxy about 10 billion years ago. The smaller galaxy’s stars are shown with yellow arrows depicting their direction of motion.

ESA (artist’s impression and composition); H.H. Koppelman, A. Villalobos and A. Helmi (simulation); Hubble/ESA/NASA (galaxy image), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

By Lisa Grossman

- More than 2 years ago

In its younger days, the Milky Way devoured a smaller galaxy, and stars from the hapless victim still roam the skies today to tell the tale, a new study finds.