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A new study led by researchers at Ohio State University provides the latest evidence into the formation of the Milky Way galaxy, including the merger with a key satellite galaxy.
The study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, was conducted by using relatively new methods in astronomy.
The researchers were able to identify the most precise ages currently possible for a sample of about a hundred red giant stars in the galaxy.
By employing cutting-edge methods by which to derive these latest calculations and theories of how our galaxy merged with a satellite galaxy, scientists from Ohio State University and the University of Birmingham were able to pin down a better timeline by sampling nearly one hundred red giant stars in the Milky Way.
By pairing this up with previously documented research, the team was eager to demonstrate the events that occurred when our galaxy married an orbiting galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus some 10 billion years ago.
Credit: Getty Images
“Our evidence suggests that when the merger occurred, the Milky Way had already formed a large population of its own stars,” said Fiorenzo Vincenzo, co-author of the study and a fellow in The Ohio State University’s Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
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Some of the oldest stars in our galaxy have been dated with unprecedented precision, scientists say.
New Research Sheds Light on Creation of Milky Way
Aging individual stars helps date early merger event
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New research provides the best evidence to date into the timing of how our early Milky Way came together, including the merger with a key satellite galaxy.
Using relatively new methods in astronomy, the researchers were able to identify the most precise ages currently possible for a sample of about a hundred red giant stars in the galaxy.
With this and other data, the researchers were able to show what was happening when the Milky Way merged with an orbiting satellite galaxy, known as Gaia-Enceladus, about 10 billion years ago.