Astronomers have found new evidence that the Milky Way is a cannibal, devouring streams of stars from its nearest galactic neighbors. The finding lends further support to the idea that instead of forming wholesale, our galaxy grew bit by bit and is even today snaring matter from other galaxies (SN: 4/22/00, p. 261).
The study also raises questions about how and when globular clusters, dense groupings of the oldest stars in our galaxy, were formed.
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