Facts about Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
- 09
Within 5,000 to 10,000 years, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy's core will pass through the Milky Way's disk for what may be the final time before complete assimilation.
- 08
Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy's core contains a supermassive black hole estimated at 4 million solar masses, comparable in size to Sagittarius A* at the Milky Way's center.
- 07
Disrupted streams from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy contain some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way, with ages exceeding 12 billion years.
- 06
Elliptical in shape, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy is currently being cannibalized by the Milky Way's gravity well, with its core passing through our galactic disk multiple times over billions of years.
- 05
Tidal disruption has stripped away most of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy's outer stellar halo, leaving only a dense core of approximately 10 million stars in its nucleus.
- 04
Located approximately 70,000 light-years from Earth, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy orbits the Milky Way in a polar trajectory nearly perpendicular to our galactic disk.
- 03
Stellar streams extending up to 300,000 light-years from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy wrap around the Milky Way in multiple tidal tails spanning billions of stars.
- 02
The Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy contains only about 1 billion stars, making it roughly one-thousandth the stellar mass of the Milky Way.
- 01
Approximately 2 billion years ago, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy began its collision and merger with the Milky Way, creating the distinctive stellar streams we observe today.