The formation of the Sun, the Solar System, and eventually life on Earth, may be the result of a collision that occurred between the Milky Way and the smaller satellite galaxy Sagittarius, which was discovered in the 1990s.
Astronomers have long known that Sagittarius collides with the Milky Way disk by circling its center. Earlier studies have indicated that the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy had a huge impact on the movement of stars in the Milky Way. Some even claim that the characteristic spiral shape of the Milky Way may be the result of at least three known collisions with Sagittarius over the past six billion years.
The latest research based on data collected by the Gaia spacecraft has revealed for the first time that the impact of Sagittarius on the Milky Way may be even greater than we thought. Shock waves caused by collisions could provoke a strong intensification of star-forming processes, which temporarily coincide with the creation of our Sun some 4.7 billion years ago.
Current models indicate that Sagittarius collided with the Milky Way disk three times - for the first time about five or six billion years ago, then two billion years ago and for the last time one billion years ago - says Tomas Ruiz Lara, researcher at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife and the main author of the study, which appeared on the pages of Nature Astronomy.
When we looked at the Gaea data, we discovered three star-forming periods whose peaks were 5.7, 1.9 and 1 billion years ago, respectively, when Sagittarius roughly collided with the Milky Way.
Researchers analyzed the brightness, distances and colors of stars within 6500 light years from Earth and compared the obtained results with current models of star evolution. According to Tomas, the theory that a dwarf galaxy could have had such an effect on the Milky Way makes a lot of sense.
At the beginning we have a galaxy, the Milky Way, which is relatively calm. After the first violent stage of star formation, caused by an earlier collision with another galaxy, the Milky Way came to a state of equilibrium, where stars form at an even pace. Suddenly Sagittarius appears and disturbs his balance. All gas and dust are agitated and spread across the galaxy like waves on a lake.
In some parts of the Milky Way, these disorders disperse gas and dust, which thicken in one place, escaping from another. Higher matter density in these regions can cause star formation to begin.
Therefore, it seems that Sagittarius not only influenced the structure and changed the dynamics of stars in the Milky Way, but also contributed to its expansion - says Carme Gallart, co-author of the article from IAC. - It seems to us that a significant proportion of the stars in the Milky Way were formed by the interaction of the galaxy with Sagittarius.
It therefore seems possible that the Sun and the planets orbiting it would not have formed at all if the dwarf galaxy Sagittarius did not fall into the trap of gravity of the Milky Way and did not hit it in time.
The sun was formed at a time when stars formed in the Milky Way as a result of the first collision with Sagittarius. We do not know exactly whether this cloud of gas and dust from which the Sun was formed collapsed as a result of Sagittarius's impact. But this is quite possible given the coincidence in time.
Each hit on the Milky Way deprived Sagittarius of some gas and dust, making the galaxy smaller after each encounter. Existing data indicate that this galaxy may have passed through the Milky Way disk quite recently, over the past several hundred million years, and is still close to it.
Such detailed information about star-forming processes in the Milky Way would not have been possible had it not been for Gaia, the telescope launched into space in 2013 to study the distance and speed of a billion stars in the immediate vicinity of the Sun.
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If it wasn't for the small galaxy hitting the Milky Way disk, you might not be here
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