The Milky Way is about to completely obliterate a neighbouring galaxy

By Leah Crane

Lynette Cook/Science Photo Library

One of our neighbouring galaxies is dying, and it’s the Milky Way’s fault. Our galaxy is nearly done ripping the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy to shreds, according to a series of simulations of the pair’s epic dance.

The Sagittarius dwarf galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s satellites, and its orbit around the Milky Way has been slowly closing in over billions of years. Eugene Vasiliev and Vasily Belokurov at Cambridge University in the UK used data from the Gaia satellite to figure out which stars …