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Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

Our Milky Way galaxy was not always a spiral. Here's how it changed shape

Milky way NASA
The clashing galaxies NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top) as seen by the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i

A 100-year-old mystery surrounding the "shape-shifting" nature of some galaxies has been solved, revealing in the process that our Milky Way galaxy did not always possess its familiar spiral appearance. 

Astronomer Alister Graham used old and new observations to show how the evolution of galaxies from one shape to another takes place  — a process known as galactic speciation . The research shows that clashes and subsequent mergers between galaxies are a form of "natural selection" that drives the process of cosmic evolution. 

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