science π Milky Way ate a galaxy billions of years ago
The Milky Way galaxy grew by consuming a smaller galaxy around 11.8 billion years ago. This event involved the galaxy named Low-energy-Kraken-Heracles (LKH) merging into our own. The meal contained stars equivalent to about 50 crore Suns, happening when the universe was less than 2.1 billion years old. Astronomers pieced this together by studying ancient globular clusters using Hubble and ESA's Gaia mission. This confirms that galactic absorption, not just star formation, shaped the Milky Way's growth. π