Our local group is dominated by two galaxies, the Milky Way (our own) and the Andromeda Galaxy. Outside Andromeda are the smaller galaxies, the Large Magellanic Clouds and the Smaller Magellanic Clouds. Astronomers have long since pondered how these smaller galaxies came to neighbor Andromeda, and nearly always theorized that these three galaxies came from the collision of two larger galaxies.
Exciting news is coming out of Paris, however, as Francois Hamme and his team have been able to (for the first time!) model the creation of these bodies successfully. They were able to account for nearly all of the stranger features of Andromeda that make it unique, suggesting that their model isn't a generic one, and it fits the bill for this situation perfectly.
The implications of this discovery are vast. This collision would have been the most important event in the history of our local group: the information we can glean from these finding are immense. It is is possible now to calculate the direction of baryonic matter (gas, etc) that would have escaped the collision. We see Andromeda at inclination 77* ... which suggests that we see it nearly directly side-on, also suggesting that much of that matter would have made its way in the general direction of the Milky Way!
See the article [here]
Just to get an idea of how fascinating our beautiful neighbour is, also, check out this video on youtube that shows her off in just 3 minutes.
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