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- According to scientists, Milky Way was shaped in its present form as a result of collision with another smaller galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus, 10 billion years ago.
- The study has been based on data from the Gaia space observatory- a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA). Gaia seeks to map the positions of more than 1 billion stars to the highest precision
- The merger of the Milky Way and Gaia-Enceladus increased Milky Way’s mass by about a quarter and triggered a period of accelerated star formation which lasted for 2 to 4 billion years.
- Galaxies of all types began to form relatively soon after the Big Bang explosion. The Big Bang explosion marked the beginning of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago.
- However, the galaxies were relatively smaller that time and subsequent galactic mergers have given galaxies their present configuration.
