The Magellanic Clouds tagged posts

A Bridge of Stars Connects 2 Dwarf Galaxies

Pale white veils and the narrow bridge between the clouds represent the distribution of the RR Lyrae stars. Credit: V Belokurov, D Erkal, A Mellinger

Pale white veils and the narrow bridge between the clouds represent the distribution of the RR Lyrae stars. Credit: V Belokurov, D Erkal, A Mellinger

The Magellanic Clouds, the 2 largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, appear to be connected by a bridge stretching across 43,000 light years, according to an international team of astronomers led by researchers from the University of Cambridge. The discovery is based on the Galactic stellar census being conducted by the European Space Observatory, Gaia which scientists have been eagerly anticipating for 15 years. The first portion of information from the satellite was released 3 months ago and is freely accessible to everyone...

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