Galactic Tracers (IMAGE)

University of Arizona

Galactic Tracers

Caption

This is an artist's interpretation of what happens as a satellite merges with its host galaxy: These streams of stars arcing high over the Milky Way are remnants of galaxies and star clusters, mangled and torn apart by our galaxy's gravitational stresses over billions of years. Extending over much of the northern sky, the streams lie between 13,000 and 130,000 light-years from Earth.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt/SSC/Caltech

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