New insights into the Milky Way‘s history

Thanks to the latest device on the VLT telescopic system, the scientists found that the stars formed at different times.

New insights about the past of our galaxy has been discovered through observation of its central part, which was previously inaccessible because of the dust cloud that covers it, authors of the study published on Wednesday said.

- History of the Milky Way is registered in its oldest parts, that is, in spherical clusters and other star systems that witnessed all the changes in our galaxy - said Francesco Ferraro at the University of Bologna.

Just like the archeologists find traces of dead civilizations under the layers of dust, the astronomers observed thick layers of interstellar dust at the center of our galaxy in which they found traces of the past.

Thanks to the latest device installed in the VLT (Very Large Telescope) telescopic system on Mount Paranal in Chile, the scientists found that the stars in the cluster called Terzani 5 were created at different times. Some were born 12 billion years ago, while the newer ones were formed 6 billion years later.

Until now it was thought that each one of the hundred fifty star clusters in the Milky Way were of approximately the same age.

Complicated history of Terzana 5 suggests that this may be the left over part of the dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way in the beginning of its creation. “Terzani could be the first example of clusters that participated in the birth of spherical galactic clusters”, concludes Ferraro and his colleagues in the scientific journal Nature.