Scientists used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study our galaxy's past. They found evidence that a small galaxy called LKH crashed into the Milky Way. This happened about 12 billion years ago. The young Milky Way merged with this dwarf galaxy. This finding helps us understand our galaxy's history better. Scientists studied different phases of star formation to confirm this.
The study appeared in the journal Nature Astronomy recently. It shows what happened when our galaxy was forming. This new knowledge goes 1.8 billion years further back than before. Scientists can now see how the Milky Way formed and grew. The collision happened when our galaxy was very young.