Incoming Third Impact of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy (IMAGE)
Caption
Incoming third impact of the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy (blue stream of stars) with our Milky Way Galaxy (multicolored disk) was simulated by supercomputer and rendered by Erik Tollerud against a background of galaxies seen in the Hubble Deep Field. Note the simulated disk's ring-like spiral extensions in the outer Milky Way (upper left), which strongly resemble actual streams found at low latitudes with respect to the disk plane, in the nearby region of the Milky Way viewed from the Earth in the opposite direction from the center of the Galaxy. Those spiral arms began to emerge after the initial impact of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy nearly two billion years ago; they have been amplified until the present day, into the many spiral arms observed in the Milky Way.
Credit
Chris Purcell/HI-PACC
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