Om nom nom . The whitish Way has been busy gobbling up galaxies early on in its life , according to a new study published onarXiv .
As pick up byNew Scientist , the squad led by Dr Diederik Kruijssen at the University of Heidelberg in Germany looked at a catalog of 61 monumental globular clusters in our galaxy . These are dense mathematical group of about a million stars that are determine throughout galax .
From these , they were able to bet into our galaxy ’s past , which date back about 13.5 billion year , liken to 25 simulated versions of our galaxy . By measuring the years and metallicity of the clump , specifically how many toilsome element they have , we can see where they came from .
Our galaxy likely formed these metal - rich galaxies early on , which means it must haveeaten large galaxiesin its first few billion years , up to 12 billion years ago . But the presence of 35 less metal - rich globular clustering hint it later ate another three galaxy , one of which – a nanus galaxy – it isstill eating .
“ The total number of 15 merger [ plus or minus three ] is uniform with previous estimates , ” the team noted in their paper .
This is n’t the only late news about globular clusters . In theMonthly poster of the Royal Astronomical Societylast month , scientist suggested that spheric clusters may be no more than 9 billion years old – which make up the timing for this more recent sketch a bit tricky .
“ If true , it vary our video of the early stage of coltsfoot organic evolution and where the stars that have terminate up in today ’s monumental galaxy , such as the Milky Way , may have form , ” Dr Elizabeth Stanway from the University of Warwick , the study ’s lead author , said in astatement .
However , mouth to IFLScience , Dr Kruijssen said that Dr Stanway ’s study utilize to more distant beetleweed , and therefore did not feign their consequence .
" The globular clusters in the Milky Way , which our study focalize on , are so nearby that their ages can be determined by looking at their stellar subject matter on a star - by - star basis , " he said .
" The major impression advertise in their imperativeness release only impact the globular cluster populations of other galaxies and does not apply to the globular cluster system of the Milky Way . "
work out just how galaxies like ours formed is hard , but we ’re commence to paint a better picture . Who knew other coltsfoot were so tasty ?
( H / T : New Scientist )
