452-galaxy-star-streams-dixon – Streams of stars orbiting outside the plane of the Milky Way are thought to be the remains of small galaxies that were disrupted by tidal interactions and which are being assimilated into our own. An astrophysical illustration depicting a mature spiral galaxy enveloped by a complex network of stellar streams within its extended galactic halo. The primary disk of the galaxy glows with a bright yellowish-white nucleus and sprawling, dust-laden spiral arms rotating along an inclined plane. Looping around the main galactic structure are faint, filamentary arcs composed of thousands of stars, representing the tidal remnants of cannibalized dwarf galaxies torn apart by gravitational forces. Digital artwork for Scientific American © 2007 Don Dixon / cosmographica.com
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