Galaxy's snacking habits revealed

A team of Australian and Spanish astronomers have caught a greedy galaxy gobbling on its neighbours and leaving crumbs of evidence about its dietary past. Galaxies grow by churning loose gas from their surroundings into new stars, or by swallowing neighbouring galaxies whole. However, they normally leave very few traces of their cannibalistic habits. A composite image of the galaxy NGC 1512, located 38 million light years away in the direction of the constellation of Horologium, in the southern ...