If you squint and use your imagination, you can definitely see something sausage-shaped in the graph below.(V. Belokurov (Cambridge, UK) and Gaia/ESA)
Posted on 07/06/2018 3:35:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
It turns out that our galaxy looks the way it does today thanks to a run-in with something called the 'Gaia Sausage'.
As greasy as space is, we're not talking cosmic processed foods here. Rather, astronomers have found signs that a small galaxy smashed into the Milky Way billions of years ago, leaving behind a mess of stars with some rather unusual orbits.
So, what makes this cosmic object a 'sausage'? Cambridge University astronomer Wyn Evans says it all came down to the paths of the stars following the impact...
Collisions between galaxies aren't all that unusual, and the Milky Way has had its fair share of dust-ups with surrounding crowds of stars.
One small merger thought to have occurred just 100 million years ago left the galaxy "ringing like a bell" with huge ripples observed in our corner of the galaxy.
But this one wasn't just any puff of stars and dust. Additional analysis noticed it was accompanied by at least eight star clusters, meaning as far as small galaxies go it had to have been on the slightly chunky side of around 10 billion solar masses...
The stars long, radial velocities aren't unlike the comets in our own Solar System, dipping in and out of the galactic centre in tight U-turns and changing the density of the bulge. As the disc continued to stretch over time, those orbits elongated...
In around 4 billion years, Andromeda and the Milky Way will swirl together and mix stars in a slow dance that will once again change the shape of our galaxy in a monumental way.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
If you squint and use your imagination, you can definitely see something sausage-shaped in the graph below.(V. Belokurov (Cambridge, UK) and Gaia/ESA)
I find the title very arousing somehow..
When the McDonald's Happy Meal Galaxy hits, everyone will be showered with toys.
Just need to find a bacon galaxy and a fried egg galaxy and we’ll be set.
I’m bumping this for the sausage jokes.
5.56mm
After the Milky Way did that you never sausage troubles as we’ve had.
Some things you never live down.
We got schlonged
Some of us FReepers don’t get out much. Whatever turns us on....
The reason they call it “sausage” is because they never sausage an explosion before.
One of the few times a woman said “its too big, it wont fit!” and it turned out to be true.
If this worthless data will help me determine what canned food our kitties will eat at any given time, I’m all in!!
Where are the ladies? It’s like a sausage galaxy in here!
Thanks for the link.
Is that a sausage in your pants, or are you just glad to see me.
Said the First lady.
5.56mm
Meat’s meat, and a man’s gotta eat.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
