bout 10 billion years ago our galaxy felt a bit hungry and upon encountering a smaller galaxy named Gaia-Enceladus it decided to devour it. This smaller galaxy has been nicknamed by astronomers as Sausage Galaxy. Although this event is much more complicated than it sounds. The Milky Way did not consume the galaxy, but it actually merged with it, which has been proven by NASA upon the discovery of stars within our galaxy that originate from Gaia-Enceladus.

An evolving universe

The way that our universe is evolving is quite complex and even the brightest minds at NASA are still having a hard time giving a precise explanation of how our galaxy formed. There are many different scientific hypotheses on how our galaxy formed.

One such hypothesis does refer to the Milky Way from 10 billion years ago devouring Enceladus and forming the present Milky Way with all of its planets. It may be that some of the planets and stars that are within our galaxy today may have been brought by Enceladus. One planet that some astronomers assume was brought by this galaxy is Pluto due to its size and positioning within the solar system.

However, this hypothesis is considered controversial within the astronomy field. That is why a huge study by NASA has been carried out where they mapped a million starts over a distance of 6,500 light-years. This study used the Gaia telescope that was launched in 2013 by the European Space Agency.

The study helped differentiate the stars that have formed within the Milky Way galaxy and those that have formed in other galaxies. The study also proves that the two galaxies actually merged and this can be seen from how the mystic spheres of the two galaxies have merged, therefore changing in color. This theory has been brought forward by Carme Gallart an astrologist who has been observing our galaxy for the last 20 years.

Is this how our galaxy formed?

Astrologists found a way in which they can look at the cosmic history of our galaxy and see the way it had evolved as well as how it had been affected by the sausage galaxy 10 billion years ago. This was done by observing the chemical composition of the galaxy as well as how the start orbits changed throughout history.

It was found that the two galaxies started forming stars three billion years before merging. Even though their merger didn’t happen overnight, it is assumed that this was a slow process that took millions of years. You can see in the diagram above the transition and how the two cosmic atmospheres (gas disks) merged forming an interesting pigment of similar colors as their original form.

As the two galaxies merged, the stars of the young Milky Way began to heat up, being attracted to the outer disk of the galaxy. The gas disks surrounding the galactic nucleus are also the source of the gases that underlie the new start that currently populate our galaxy.

In order to truly understand the formation of the Milky Way from its first star we probably have to go back hundreds of billions of years back in history, maybe even near the formation of the universe.

We are still far from seeing with accuracy such a far past, but one day we may even find a way to travel right to the point of formation to admire our colossus galaxy eating Gaia-Enceladus which in a way represents the vicious circle of life but on a much greater scale.