A joint international research team was able to build a historical sequence, which is the most accurate yet in cosmology, for our Milky Way galaxy over the past 13 billion years, which will contribute to achieving a better understanding of the future of our galaxy, and the nature of galaxies in general.
Jaya's amazing data
To reach these results, which were published in the journal "Astronomerium" and announced on the twenty-fifth of last May, scientists used the data of a million stars in the galactic halo region, issued by the space telescope "Jaya" of the European Space Agency.
The galactic aura is a huge spherical space that surrounds galaxies, and stars, constellations, and dust clouds are found with less density than arms.
According to the study, the analysis of these data indicated the presence of two separate groups of stars in the aura of our galaxy "Milky Way", the first tends to blue, and the second tends to red, both of which move in a different path.
And these results indicate, accordingly, that each of these two groups of stars has a different source from the other, which means that the Milky Way galaxy came from the fusion of two previous galaxies, and the researchers used the proportions of minerals in each of the two groups to date this fusion in the most accurate way yet.
A tumultuous history
According to the study, 13 billion years ago from now there were two galaxies close to each other, called "Daya-Enceladus" - a small galaxy - and the "ancestor of the Milky Way", four times the size of its mate.
The fusion of the two galaxies lasted about three billion years, during which chaos prevailed, and the results of this were the exit of two groups of stars into the halo of the new galaxy, which were captured by the space observatory "Jaya", and the scientists concluded from their studies all this tumultuous history.
And the study continues to date what happened to our galaxy, to the stage of complete stability six billion years ago, as it reached its image, which we now know.
The future of the Milky Way
These results confirm a previous hypothesis of scientists saying that the first galaxies were very small and active, and then joined together slowly forming the galaxies we know today, which in turn may fuse together at some point to form larger galaxies.
This accurate date is useful for predicting the future of our Milky Way, where we now know that she and her neighbor Andromeda (Andromeda) - which is located about 2.5 million light-years away - are approaching each other quickly.
And fusion between them is likely to happen within four to five billion years, which will produce a huge oval galaxy that astronomers are accustomed to calling "mecumida".
In any case, the researchers of the new study hope that their results will develop from our concepts of the history of our galaxy, and they, like other researchers in this range, are looking forward to more data from the “Jaya Space” telescope.
The promising Jaya telescope project was launched in 2013, and its main objective is to build a three-dimensional map of a billion Milky Way stars, which will exceptionally contribute to developing our knowledge of this vast universe.