"With 400 billion stars, our galaxy is a bigwig in the Local Group of 50 or so galaxies. It began 13 billion years ago as blobs of gas and dust that ignited into star clusters, pulling in matter. The mass contracted, rotated around a nucleus, and flattened into a disk."
A perfect spiral galaxy would be symmetrical. But no galaxy is an island, and encounters with other masses have mangled the Milky Way’s arms and jumbled its stars. Like snowflakes, every spiral galaxy is unique. Those distortions offer clues to their chaotic pasts.
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Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy
In a billion years, the Milky Way will devour its closest neighbor. Until then, the Canis Major galaxy messes with our stars as it orbits us, herding them into a dusty, gassy filament called the Monoceros Ring, which wraps around the Milky Way three times.
Imperfect Symmetry
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Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage
About 8 to 10 billion years ago, the Milky Way took its biggest hit. A large galaxy we now call Enceladus whammed our galaxy head-on and fell to pieces. Stars impacted by the collision, abbreviated GES, thickened the galactic disk and now form most of the halo.
Milky Way Galaxy Rank 3
Shakti and Shiva
About 12 or 13 billion years ago, two galaxies we now call Shakti and Shiva joined the chaotic protogalaxy that would become the Milky Way. The stars retained their orbits and chemistry, which is how we can identify them today.