Skymapper at the ANU Siding Spring Observatory.
An international team of astronomers has discovered a new stream of stars in our Milky Way, thanks to data collected at the ANU Siding Spring Observatory. The research, led by Dr Mary Williams from the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP), is part of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) and used data from Siding Spring to measure the velocities of 250,000 stars. The new 'Aquarius Stream' is named after the constellation of Aquarius in which it resides. The stream of stars is a remnant of a smaller galaxy in our cosmic neighbourhood, which was pulled apart by the gravitational pull of the Milky Way about 700 million years ago. Dr Mary Williams, a former graduate student of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU, said the Aquarius Stream was particularly hard to find, located deep within the Milky Way where it was indistinguishable from the huge quantity of stars blocking our view of it. 'It was right on our doorstep, but we just couldn't see it,? said Dr Williams. Dr Williams used the RAVE data to draw conclusions about the formation of the Milky Way.
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