Welcome Nyx — Stars in Milky Way from Outside the Galaxy
GAIA finds Nyx — a family of stars from outside our galaxy traveling within the Milky Way. We talk with astrophysicist Lina Niceb.
The Milky Way contains hundreds of millions of stars, but not all of them are native to our galaxy. Astronomers have now found stars in our home galaxy that formed outside our family of stars.
Nyx, a cluster of roughly 250 stars recently discovered within our galaxy, display velocities showing they originated outside our galaxy. This stellar stream likely arrived as part of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way long ago. As the cluster approached the Milky Way, this family of stars was stretched out by gravity from our galaxy, pulling the cluster like taffy.
On July 28, Dr. Lina Necib, the astrophysicist who discovered this unusual collection of stars, will appear on Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion — make sure to tune in!
The World of Gaia
Using FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) simulations, astronomers are able to model groups of stars, revealing the origin of these stellar furnaces. Starting models soon after the Big Bang, this simulation, one of the largest models of its type, shows how galaxies form into the formations we see today. Even using supercomputers, these nine simulations took…
