After examining the data collected as a result of the Gaja satellite mission, astronomers have come to an amazing conclusion: it turns out that our galaxy has been flooded with alien stars from distant space.
In 2013, the European Space Agency launched the Gaja satellite with the ambitious goal of mapping all the stars in our galaxy. Recently, astronomers decided to turn to the collected information array to find previously unknown luminaries. But an amazing discovery awaited them: the satellite found a good dozen stars, which, apparently, were born outside the Milky Way!
Gaja is a unique satellite. Its task is not only to detect unknown stars to date, but also to measure the distance to them and determine in which direction and at what speed they are moving. The ultimate goal of the mission is to create a 3D map of the galaxy, with the help of which it will be possible to predict the behavior of a particular star at any moment in time, including the past and distant future.
A team of researchers from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands decided to use this information to find stars that are currently leaving our galaxy. This happens as a result of a very interesting phenomenon: sometimes the luminaries float too close to the center of the galaxy, where they are captured by the gravitational field. Having captured a star, it can "shoot" it - and, since the star will move from the center to the border of the Milky Way, sooner or later it will go beyond its limits. The researchers were interested in stars that move at high speed - it is easier to determine one or another type of star from them.
Trajectories of the "alien" stars.
Be that as it may, as a result of the analysis of the Gaja data, it was found that most of the stars that are now floating through space at high speed are actually moving not from the center, but towards it! According to scientists, these are aliens from other galaxies, similarly launched by gravity on a long journey. Out of a total of 20 high-speed stars, 13 turned out to be aliens from other galaxies. Most probably came from the Large Magellanic Cloud, our galactic neighbor.
Vasily Makarov