This hot 'stream' of star gas will collide with our galaxy sooner than we thought
The Magellanic Stream is a cosmic battle scar from an ancient game of tug-of-war, and it’s headed right for us.
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The Magellanic Stream is a cosmic battle scar from an ancient game of tug-of-war, and it’s headed right for us.
Dwarf galaxies in the vicinity of the Milky Way are believed to be its satellites, much like the Earth orbiting the Sun. The new Gaia data released at
"Not even light can escape such hollowing, this huge mass in a small space. Even the Milky Way with its open arms is said to have a black hole at its heart." -Susan B.A. Somers-Willett Our Milky Way is home to us all. With its hundreds of billions of stars, massive spiral arms, dust lanes, and orbiting globular clusters, it's no wonder that nearly everything we see in the night sky is contained within it.
Distances in space are hard.
Our galaxy is not alone. Swirling around the Milky Way are several smaller, dwarf galaxies — the biggest of which are the Small and Large Magellanic