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The Milky Way was disrupted by a collision with another smaller galaxy, scientists say.
About 700 million years ago – relatively recent, by universe standards – the Milky Way suffered an accident that left a 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 considered relatively static, or fell into balance. Instead, it experiences 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, say the researchers, in the way they disrupted the fabric of the galaxy itself.
Astronomers were able to explore how the LMC distorted the motion of the Milky Way using a statistical model that allowed them to calculate the speed of the furthest departures from the Milky Way.
They discovered that the galaxy was not heading to where the LMC is now, as it was thought, but where it was in its past. Looks like he’s trying to catch a high speed train and disappears.
The LMC lives as a satellite galaxy in the Milky Way and can be seen as a light cloud in the southern hemisphere night sky.
But what can’t be seen is the halo of dark matter surrounding it and our own Milky Way, revealed in recent research. Although these particles are invisible, they can be examined through their effects on the stars and the gases around them.
The dark matter halo appears to twist the Milky Way’s disk, pulling it toward the constellation Pegasus. The strange direction appears to be the result of the LMC itself moving even faster than the Milky Way.
“This discovery definitely breaks the spell that our galaxy is in some kind of state of equilibrium. In fact, the recent infiltration of the LMC is causing violent disruption to the Milky Way, ”said Jorge Peñarrubia, personal chair of gravitational dynamics at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, where the research was conducted.
“Understanding these can give us unparalleled insight into the distribution of dark matter in the two galaxies.”
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