A group of astronomers from the Catholic University of the North in Chile have found out the consequences of the collision of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. It turned out that the interaction between galaxies led to the appearance of new stars. The scientists presented their findings in an article published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The study is briefly reported by the Gizmodo edition.
The Magellanic Clouds are satellites of the Milky Way and are located at a distance of 160 thousand light years from it. About 200 million years ago, the galaxies came close enough to each other that the gravitational interaction between them began to influence the processes of star formation.
To uncover the aftermath of the collision of two galaxies, scientists began looking for newly formed stars in the periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). They discovered six space objects that formed about 50 million years ago, which makes them young by astronomical standards. At the same time, these celestial bodies were located in a region where mainly old stars are located.
According to astronomers, the location of the young stars discovered by them far from the LMC center suggests that the collision of satellite galaxies in them activated the formation of new space objects.