About 8-11 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy merged with the Milky Way, adding 50 billion solar masses of stars, gas, and dark matter. The object is known as the "Gaia Sausage" because of the extended stream of stars found using ESA's Gaia mission. Astronomers think the Milky Way's central bar formed roughly the same time as the merger. A new paper suggests that merging with the Gaia Sausage triggers the formation of the Milky Way's bar and the build-up of its disk. The post Did the Last Great G...
About 8-11 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy merged with the Milky Way, adding 50 billion solar masses of stars, gas, and dark matter. The object is known as the "Gaia Sausage" because of the extended stream of stars found using ESA's Gaia mission. Astronomers think the Milky Way's central bar formed roughly the same time as the merger. A new paper suggests that merging with the Gaia Sausage triggers the formation of the Milky Way's bar and the build-up of its disk. The post Did the Last Great G...
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