The Evolution of Our Milky Way: From Chaos to Spiral
Astronomer Alister Graham has solved a century-old mystery by revealing that our Milky Way galaxy did not always have its familiar spiral shape. Using old and new observations, Graham showed that clashes and mergers between galaxies drive the process of galactic speciation, or cosmic evolution. The research identified two types of bridging lenticular galaxies: old and dust-poor, and young and dust-rich. Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way lie between these two types. The study also suggests that the Milky Way's history includes mergers and acquisitions, and it is set to merge with the Andromeda galaxy in the future. The findings provide insights into the evolution of galaxies and could help explain the existence of massive galaxies in the universe.
