We continue to gobble up nearby smaller galaxies:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5272149/The-Milky-Way-ATE-11-galaxies-gr...

"Scientists examining an exhaustive survey of roughly 400 million objects in the cosmos have discovered incredible new insight on the violent ‘eating’ habits of the Milky Way.

"Preliminary results from the Dark Energy survey have revealed a stunning look at the remains of 11 smaller galaxies that have been devoured by our own, reducing them to stellar streams.

"As these objects are typically very difficult to spot, scientists say the most recent find could pave the way for other important discoveries about our universe – such as narrowing down the properties of dark matter.

***

"The latest research relies on the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey, accounting for one-eighth of the entire sky, or about 5,000 square degrees.

"More than 400 researchers from all around the world collaborated on the massive effort to reveal the nature of mysterious dark energy, using the Dark Energy Camera mounted on the NSF’s 4-meter Blanco telescope in Chile.

"The current survey so far includes about 40,000 exposures taken with the camera.

***

"Through the survey, the researchers discovered 11 new stellar streams – the remnants of galaxies ripped to shreds by the Milky Way.

"These objects are created as the Milky Way’s ‘halo’ of dark matter tugs on smaller nearby galaxies, pulling them in and effectively ripping them apart.

***

"The Milky Way absorbs the smaller systems, leaving behind streams of sparsely scattered stars.

‘'It’s exciting that we found so many stellar streams,’ said astrophysicist Alex Drlica-Wagner of Fermilab and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at UChicago.

‘'We can use thse streams to measure the amount, distribution, and “clumpiness” of dark matter in the Milky Way.

‘'Studies of stellar streams will help constrain the fundamental properties of dark matter.'’

Comment: Look at the picture of the galaxy showing the position of our sun about two-thirds out on the second spiral arm, a safe area for us. The latest report now notes 15 gobbled galaxies from the ongoing survey:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2172114-the-milky-way-has-devoured-15-other-galaxi...