Behold the Magellanic Stream that encircles the Milky Way

Eons ago , two of our satellite galaxy became locked in a cosmic game of tug - of - war . Their fierce gravitational interactions rip out a huge decoration of live , potentially star - work gas that now ring much of our own galaxy ’s southerly hemisphere , as this amazing new Hubble image shows .

The so - call Magellanic Stream takes its name from its primogenitor , the gnome galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds . First sighted decades ago , the Magellanic Stream had long defied precis explanation , and it ’s only this year that astronomers now feel confident that they empathize just where this immense medallion comes from . There ’s also the question of where it ’s become ; it ’s possible that the palm will finally come down into our own galaxy , coiffure off a new frenzy of star establishment . There ’s a good rundown of the story over atWired , and here ’s some more setting on the Hubble epitome fromNASA :

This composite image point the foresightful ribbon of flatulence , discovered at radio wavelength in the 1970s , in pinkish hues against an optical all - sky view across the plane of our Milky Way galaxy . Both big and Small Magellanic Clouds , dwarf satellite galaxy of the the Milky Way , are watch near the point of the stream at the right hand . datum from Hubble ’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph were used to explore abundances of elements along sightlines to quasar that cross the flow . The results betoken that most of the flow ’s material comes from the Small Magellanic Cloud . The Magellanic Stream is likely the final result of gravitative tidal fundamental interaction between the two nanus galaxies some 2 billion years ago , the Small Magellanic Cloud losing more stuff in the showdown because of its low mass .

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