Busted! Astronomers Confirm The Large Magellanic Cloud Totally Ate Another Galaxy

[Judi Lynn]

MICHELLE STARR18 OCTOBER 2021

The Milky Way galaxy has a history of violence.

Over the Universe's 13.8-billion-year lifespan, it has repeatedly collided with and subsumed multiple other galaxies – and it's not done. It's in the process of merging with smaller satellite galaxies even as you read these words: the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

But these satellite galaxies aren't innocents in the matter, oh no. A team of astronomers led by Alessio Mucciarelli of the University of Bologna in Italy has found evidence that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is also a cannibal, having merged with another galaxy at some point in its mysterious past.

The finding, the researchers say, represents fascinating support for the way we think massive galaxies grow: by swallowing smaller satellite galaxies, a process we call hierarchical assembly.

"This discovery," they write in their paper, "is observational evidence that the process of hierarchical assembly has worked also in shaping our closest satellites."

The Magellanic Clouds are locked in a complex dance with the Milky Way. The two satellite galaxies orbit each other, and then together they orbit the larger Milky Way. The LMC is about twice the size of the Small Magellanic Cloud, and has a total mass up to 250 billion solar masses – a size at which a dwarf galaxy is expected to have satellites of its own.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-large-magellanic-cloud-totally-once-ate-another-galaxy

[marble falls]

1. Intergalectic, cosmic hunger games.

[Javaman]

2. Nom, nom, nom. nt