00:00Scientists posit that the Milky Way galaxy, the one we live in, absorbed as much as half of all
00:09of its mass from devouring other galaxies. Now our nearest galactic neighbor is doing the same,
00:13and scientists are observing the phenomenon in action. Andromeda is that nearby galaxy,
00:18situated just over two and a half million light years away. Astronomers have now identified more
00:23than 7,000 stars that have become part of that galaxy, and they say it all happened around 2
00:28billion years ago. This was all observed with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI,
00:33a device meant to measure the impact of dark energy on the universe's continual expansion.
00:38The researchers say the absorption of another entire galaxy was likely the cause,
00:42bringing with it thousands of stars, with the authors of the paper writing, quote,
00:46We have never before seen this so clearly in the motions of stars, nor had we seen some of the
00:50structures that result from this merger. Those structures include stellar streams, debris,
00:55galactic shells, rings, and plumes, adding that much of the material within the inner halo of Andromeda
01:00comes from a single merger one to two billion years ago.
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