Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have identified two enormous stellar streams lurking near the Milky Way’s core. Each stream holds up to 10 million stars, with ages around 13 billion years, just shy of the universe’s age. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal, a leading journal for astronomical discoveries.
The new stellar streams have been named Shiva and Shakti in homage to a pair of Hindu deities whose union is said to bring balance to the cosmos. The naming reflects a tradition in astronomy of drawing inspiration from human culture to describe celestial phenomena in memorable terms.
Analyses show that Shakti’s stars orbit farther from the galactic center and follow a more circular path than those in Shiva. Yet both streams contain stars with extremely low metal content, indicating that these stars formed early in cosmic history before many heavier elements had been synthesized in stellar furnaces. This metal deficiency helps scientists pinpoint when these stars formed relative to the timeline of the universe and the evolution of our galaxy.
Astronomers consider Shiva and Shakti to be among the oldest stellar components in the Milky Way. They likely represent some of the primordial building blocks from which the galaxy gradually assembled, providing a window into the early periods of galactic formation and the assembly of the central regions of our galaxy. By studying these streams, researchers hope to piece together the sequence of events that shaped the inner Milky Way and refine models of how massive galaxies grow through accretion and internal dynamics.
These discoveries add to a growing picture in which the most ancient stars are preserved in long, thin streams that weave through the galaxy. In Canada and the United States, astronomers and students alike are following these reports with interest as they illuminate the conditions of the young universe and the processes that led to the rich, complex structure we observe in our galactic neighborhood today. The work underscores the value of high-precision surveys and deep-sky observations in revealing the fossil record of the Milky Way and in guiding theoretical models of galaxy formation and evolution. The research team notes that continued observations and refined simulations will help determine how common such ancient streams are and what they reveal about the earliest chapters of our galaxy’s history, offering a clearer narrative of how cosmic structures emerged from the primordial matter that filled the young universe. At stake is a more complete understanding of how the Milky Way grew from simple beginnings into the vast, dynamic system that hosts our solar system. The discovery invites further inquiry into how these ancient rivers of stars have persisted and what they can tell us about the forces shaping galactic centers over billions of years, including the enigmatic processes that govern star formation in environments with scarce heavy elements. The study provides a vivid reminder that the cosmos still holds many chapters that are waiting to be read, especially in the cradle of our own galaxy.