Scientists at Nagoya University in Japan were surprised by their study results, which they say are «indisputable.»
Scientists at Nagoya University in Japan shared new insights into the motion of massive stars in a nearby galaxy that could completely transform our understanding of galaxy evolution and interactions.
Led by Satoya Nakano and Kengo Tachihara, the team has discovered that the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy neighboring the Milky Way, may be getting torn apart by the gravitation pull of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the SMC’s larger companion, bound to it by gravity.
«When we first got this result, we suspected that there might be an error in our method of analysis. However, upon closer examination, the results are indisputable, and we were surprised», Tachihara said in a press release.
As one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, about 210,000 light years away according to NASA, the SMC allowed the research team to identify and track roughly 7,000 massive stars within it.
These stars are more than eight times the mass of our sun and only survive a few million years before exploding as supernovae.
