Gaia Telescope Reveals Precise , Date of the Milky Way's Last , Act of Galactic Cannibalism.<br />Space.com reports that the latest findings from the Gaia <br />space telescope suggest that our Milky Way Galaxy may <br />have cannibalized a smaller galaxy relatively recently. .<br />The last major collision between the Milky Way <br />and another galaxy appears to have occurred billions <br />of years closer to now than previously believed.<br />Scientists have long known that the <br />Milky Way was formed through a series <br />of violent collisions with other galaxies. .<br />These massive collisions distribute stars <br />from the consumed galaxy throughout the <br />halo that surrounds the Milky Way's main disk. .<br />Galactic cannibalism sends "wrinkles" <br />through the galaxy, impacting different <br />families of stars in a number of ways.<br />Gaia now looks to retell the story of the <br />Milky Way by quantifying those wrinkles.<br />We get wrinklier as we age, <br />but our work reveals that the <br />opposite is true for the Milky Way. <br />It’s a sort of cosmic Benjamin Button, <br />getting less wrinkly over time. , Thomas Donlon, Study team leader of the Rensselaer Polytechnic <br />Institute and University of Alabama scientist, via Space.com.<br />By looking at how these <br />wrinkles dissipate over time, <br />we can trace when the Milky Way <br />experienced its last big crash – <br />and it turns out this happened billions <br />of years later than we thought, Thomas Donlon, Study team leader of the Rensselaer Polytechnic <br />Institute and University of Alabama scientist, via Space.com.<br />Astronomers have only been aware of these <br />wrinkles since Gaia discovered them in 2018. .<br />The latest findings represent the first time they have <br />been extensively investigated to find the <br />precise timing of the collision that spawned them.
