"The lost realm, which the astronomers have dubbed 'Loki' after the Norse trickster god, was consumed by our galaxy billions of years ago as it was growing in size."
"Dwarf galaxies tend to be made of stars that are 'metal-poor,' similar to the first stars that first formed in the universe, before later generations fused heavier elements."
"When they compared their chemical composition to objects in the galaxy's outskirts, they found the chemical traces of numerous cosmic explosions that let off heavy elements, including supernovas and neutron star mergers."
"Because it takes billions of years before a white dwarf forms, that suggests that the 20 stars came from an extreme dwarf galaxy that was too short-lived to birth white dwarfs."
Astronomers have identified a potential hidden dwarf galaxy, dubbed 'Loki', within the Milky Way. This galaxy was likely consumed by the Milky Way billions of years ago. Dwarf galaxies, which contain a few billion stars, often orbit larger galaxies and are of interest due to their irregular shapes and metal-poor stars. Researchers analyzed 20 metal-poor stars in the Milky Way's galactic plane, finding chemical traces of cosmic explosions but no evidence of white dwarf explosions, indicating these stars originated from a short-lived dwarf galaxy.
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