This story was originally published by NASA and is unaltered.

(C) NASA
This story was originally published by NASA and is unaltered.
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NASA’s Hubble Sees Aftermath of Galaxy’s Scrape with Milky Way [1]

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Date: 2024-11

This artist's concept illustrates the Large Magellanic Cloud's (LMC's) encounter with the Milky Way galaxy's gaseous halo. In the top panel, at the middle of the right side, the LMC begins crashing through our galaxy's much more massive halo. The bright purple bow shock represents the leading edge of the LMC's halo, which is being compressed as the Milky Way's halo pushes back against the incoming LMC. In the middle panel, part of the halo is being stripped and blown back into a streaming tail of gas that eventually will rain into the Milky Way. The bottom panel shows the progression of this interaction, as the LMC's comet-like tail becomes more defined. A compact LMC halo remains. Because the LMC is just past its closest approach to the Milky Way and is moving outward into deep space again, scientists do not expect the residual halo will be lost.

NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

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[1] Url: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-sees-aftermath-of-galaxys-scrape-with-milky-way/

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