00:03when galaxies collide with one another they are absolutely cataclysmic events and experts believe
00:09our galaxy the milky way was part of one of these at some point in its history now recent data
00:14from
00:15the gaia satellite is showing astronomers what might have happened and explain some anomalies
00:19we've detected in the past the milky way's galactic disc has an s-shaped bend something
00:24first noticed way back in the 1960s for decades experts weren't sure why this bend existed or why
00:30it stretched nearly a quarter of the way around the entire galaxy including altering the movement
00:34of tens of thousands of stars now they say it's likely because this is the resulting shock wave
00:40propagating throughout the galaxy the remnants of a previous galactic collision they say there are two
00:45distinct movements happening in the galactic ring one back and forth and the other up and down they
00:50see this is similar to how ocean waves move independent of a tsunami underneath however
00:55this one doesn't drag water but entire star clusters forcing them to deviate some six to nine miles from
01:01their intended paths every second recent research suggests that the milky way's last galactic collision
01:06occurred just three billion years ago meaning earth was likely already around when it happened
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