Simons Foundation, New York | 2020 Jan 07
Newborn stars on the outskirts of our galaxy probably formed from material from two dwarf galaxies called the Magellanic Clouds.
The outskirts of the Milky Way are home to the galaxy’s oldest stars. But astronomers have spotted something unexpected in this celestial retirement community: a flock of young stars.
More surprising still, spectral analysis suggests that the infant stars have an extragalactic origin. The stars seemingly formed not from material from the Milky Way, but from two nearby dwarf galaxies known as the Magellanic Clouds. Those galaxies are on a collision course with our own. The discovery suggests that a stream of gas extending from the galaxies is about half as far from crashing into the Milky Way as previously thought. ...
The newfound stars could reveal new insights into the Milky Way’s history; they might, for example, tell if the Magellanic Clouds collided with our galaxy in the past. ...
Discovery of a Disrupting Open Cluster Far into the Milky Way Halo:
A Recent Star Formation Event in the Leading Arm of the Magellanic Stream? ~ Adrian M. Price-Whelan et al
- Astrophysical Journal 887(1):19 (2019 Dec 10) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab4bdd
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1811.05991 > 14 Dec 2018
the Magellanic Leading Arm and Constraints on the Milky Way Hot Halo ~ David L. Nidever et al
- Astrophysical Journal 887(2):115 (2019 Dec 20) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab52fc
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1910.05360 > 11 Oct 2019