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Nature 412, 25-26 (5 July 2001) | doi:10.1038/35083656
Signs of galactic cannibalism
Amina Helmi
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Abstract
Theories predict that galaxies grow by swallowing smaller galaxies, which may then show up as galactic debris. Astronomers think they have found one such tell-tale structure in a nearby galaxy.
Just as palaeontologists hunt for fossils to reconstruct the evolution of life on Earth, so astronomers hunt for ancient streams of galactic debris to reconstruct the formation history of galaxies. On page 49 of this issue, Ibata and collaborators1 report the discovery of a giant stream-like structure in the Andromeda galaxy.
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