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Milky Way disc may have flipped
ZME Science··22 Jul
Researchers say the Milky Way's starry disc may have swung through more than 90 degrees during its violent youth, leaving a faint signature detectable billions of years later. Durham University's Kirill Batrakov presented the work at the 2026 National Astronomy Meeting. The clue lies in the stellar halo, which rotates far slower than the disc.
Prism
What It Means For You
- The finding does not affect daily life, but it reshapes how scientists read our galaxy's history.
- India's astronomy community may gain fresh research angles from Gaia and simulation data.
- Science students can follow how indirect evidence reconstructs events billions of years old.
What's Happening
- Researchers say the Milky Way's disc may have flipped more than 90 degrees in its youth.
- Durham University's Kirill Batrakov presented the analysis at the 2026 National Astronomy Meeting.
- The slow stellar halo's weak rotation is treated as a fossil record of an ancient merger.
Ancient Collision Left a Halo Clue
- The Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus dwarf galaxy collided with the young Milky Way roughly 8 to 11 billion years ago.
- Simulations suggest disc reorientation could take 150 million to two billion years.
- The work is based on an NAM2026 abstract and has not yet been peer reviewed.
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