Shiva and Shakti

The Milky Way Galaxy is like a big blender filled with many ingredients. But it hasn’t been blended enough for all the ingredients to completely stir in. So it’s possible to make some of them out – to see some of the raw ingredients that created the galaxy.
Astronomers recently reported the discovery of what could be two of the earliest ingredients – ribbons of stars that could be the remnants of two small galaxies. If so, they were stirred into the Milky Way about 12 billion years ago, when the galaxy was just taking shape.
The possible remnants were named Shiva and Shakti, after a Hindu god and goddess. They were discovered by Gaia, a space telescope that’s measuring the composition and motion of more than a billion stars.
Each remnant consists of a ribbon of stars that spans thousands of light-years. The stars in each ribbon appear to move through the galaxy together. And they all have a similar make-up. That suggests they were born together – as members of small galaxies.
The larger Milky Way pulled those galaxies in, then ripped them apart. Today, most of their stars have been stirred in with the rest of the Milky Way. But a few may hold on to some of their original identity – some of the earliest building blocks of the Milky Way.
If you have dark skies, look for the glowing band of the Milky Way arching high overhead as night falls – a giant blender that’s not completely stirred up.
Script by Damond Benningfield