Astronomers: Something Is Warping Our Entire Galaxy

Let’s just say it involves an imminent galactic collision.

VICTOR TANGERMANN

Astronomers have known for years that the edges of the Milky Way warp, ripple and wobble like a bowl of Jello — but nobody knew why.

But according to a new study using data collected by the European space agency’s star-mapping satellite Gaia, the Milky Way’s disc, made up of hundreds of billions of stars, is being warped as it’s slowly colliding with a smaller neighboring galaxy.

To get to this conclusion, a team of physicists at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysicists in Turin analyzed the way 12 million giant stars move in our Milky Way, as observed by ESA’s Gaia space telescope.

Their research, as detailed in a paper published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggests that the unique way the edges of our galaxy are being warped is being caused by “a recent or ongoing encounter with a satellite galaxy.”……more here

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