A group of astronomers led by Khyati Malhan of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has created an atlas of mergers of smaller galaxies with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Where earlier studies had reconstructed such mergers „by hand“, the new study applied a systematic statistical evaluation of 257 stellar streams, globular clusters and satellite galaxies, using data provided by ESA’s Gaia mission, to identify a total of six mergers – one previously unknown, which the researchers named „Pontus“. The new results are an important step towards a more complete reconstruction of our galaxy’s billion-year history. They have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
And nearby stars moving in about the same direction