Jammu, March 24 -- The Milky Way galaxy that we call home has concealed many secrets about its early formation and evolution. Through meticulous analysis of star data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, astronomers may have found clues to unravel some of these mysteries. Two intriguing stellar structures, dubbed Shiva and Shakti, have been identified that could be remnants of ancient galaxies that merged with the Milky Way billions of years ago.

German scientists Khyati Malhan and Hans-Walter Rix evaluated over 6 million stars mapped by Gaia and SDSS. They noticed unusual groupings of metal-poor stars that shared similar angular momentum and kinetic energy, unlike other populations in the galax...