Our galaxy is eating Izarra
2003/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
American astronomers have discovered the galaxy closest to the Milky Way, Canis Major (Izarrora). This galaxy, composed of about one billion stars, is twenty-five thousand light years from the Milky Way. At such a short distance, Orio has remained hidden in mists at the back of the constellation and has been detected thanks to a new infrared monitoring.
However, Canis Major will not be a long-term neighbor. It is one hundred times smaller than our galaxy and the Milky Way attracts its stars and gases by force of gravity. Consequently, it only has a survival of two billion years.
The star is not an isolated phenomenon, that is, the rest of the small galaxies around our galaxy are constantly disappearing. This is the case of the recently discovered Sagittarius galaxy.
