German experts from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have discovered two huge, never-before-observed stellar streams near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Each of these structures contains up to 10 million stars, whose age is 13 billion years, slightly less than the existence of the Universe. The study was published in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal (TAJ).
Scientists named the discovered star “rivers” Shiva and Shakti, in honor of a pair of Hindu gods whose union, according to legend, brings harmony to the universe.
The analysis showed that Shakti’s stars orbit farther from the galactic center and in a more circular orbit than Shiva’s, but that both structures contain luminaires that are extremely poor in metal. This means that there are no heavier elements formed through stellar fusion later in the history of the Universe.
Astronomers believe Shiva and Shakti likely contain some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way, making the exposed structures some of the first building blocks from which our galaxy evolved.
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