Cosmologists have long known that many galaxies, probably including our own, were formed by dozens of collisions between galaxies large and small. And some astronomers have speculated that two of the irregular satellite galaxies close to the Milky Way, called the Magellanic Clouds, are star forming debris fields that arose after such a collision. It's even possible that past collision ignited a period of furious star formation in the congealing, shattered Milky Way & friends that directly led to the formation of our sun and solar system. but new study from France suggests that last part may be even more complicated, and the two Clouds are celestial shrapnel flung over two million light-years right at us:
Recent studies have hinted that these galaxies may not actually be orbiting us as always thought, but might be passing us by at nearly a million kilometers per hour. This new model of Andromeda shows that during the collision, a long streamer of gas would’ve been drawn out and ejected. This is called a tidal tail, and is common in large collisions. In this case, the model indicates the tail may have formed the two Magellanic galaxies and sent them heading our way!
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