The large and small Magellanic Clouds.
Credit: Andrew Lockwood
Two of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way – the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – may have had a third companion, astronomers believe. Research published today describes how another “luminous” galaxy was likely engulfed by the Large Magellanic Cloud some 3 to 5 billion years ago. ICRAR Masters student Benjamin Armstrong, the lead author on the study, said most stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud rotate clockwise around the centre of the galaxy.
But, unusually, some stars rotate anti-clockwise. “For a while, it was thought that these stars might have come from its companion galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud,” Mr Armstrong said. “Our idea was that these stars might have come from a merger with another galaxy in the past.”
Mr...
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