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ESA/Hubble heic2611: Hubble solves merger mystery from Milky Way’s early years. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way galaxy …

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ESA/Hubble News
17 August 2026

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way galaxy in the earliest phases of its evolution. This finding extends our knowledge of our galaxy’s history 1.8 billion years farther back in time than before.

The release, images and videos are available on:
https://esahubble.org/news/heic2611/

Kind regards,
ESA/Hubble Information Centre
17 August 2026




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