This image may not be used to state or imply ESA endorsement of any company or product Gaia-Enceladus stars across the sky. All-sky distribution of a
This image may not be used to state or imply ESA endorsement of any company or product Gaia-Enceladus stars across the sky. All-sky distribution of a set of stars detected by the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Gaia mission. These stars move along elongated trajectories in the opposite direction to the majority of our Milky Way’s other hundred billion stars and have a markedly different chemical composition, indicating that they belong to a clearly distinct stellar population. It is thought that these stars are the debris of a galaxy that merged with our Milky Way during its early formation stages, 10 billion years ago. This galaxy has been named Gaia-Enceladus. Purple stars are nearest and yellow stars the most distant. White circles indicate globular clusters from Gaia-Enceladus, while the blue-lined star-shaped markers are variable stars from Gaia-Enceladus. The colour-coding is for the parallax of the stars in milliarcseconds.
Size: 4411px × 2481px
Photo credit: © ESA/Gaia/DPAC; A. Helmi et al 2018/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, -sky, 2018, astrometry, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, clusters, coded, collision, color, color-coded, colour, colour-coded, debris, esa, gaia, gaia-enceladus, galaxy, globular, merger, milliarcseconds, parallax, remnant, sky, space, stars, survey, universe, variable
