Researchers have discovered a concealed galaxy within the Milky Way, which they have named Loki.

      A lost dwarf galaxy might be lurking within the Milky Way.

      NASA/JPL-Caltech

      Our galaxy has a hidden secret. A recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society indicates that the Milky Way absorbed an ancient dwarf galaxy billions of years ago, with its stellar remnants still residing within our galaxy.

      Researchers have dubbed this lost galaxy Loki, named after the Norse trickster god, which is an apt choice considering it has remained concealed for an extended period.

      How did astronomers uncover Loki?

      V. Belokurov, using images from Marcus and Gail Davies and Robert Gendler

      The discovery hinged on the chemistry of stars. The first stars formed after the Big Bang consisted primarily of hydrogen and helium.

      Over billions of years, subsequent generations of stars fused these elements into heavier ones. Stars with minimal amounts of these heavier elements are deemed ancient, and astronomers refer to them as metal-poor.

      Researchers investigated a cluster of 20 metal-poor stars located within the Milky Way's galactic disk, the flat, rotating area where most of our galaxy's stars reside. This is what made them distinctive; metal-poor stars are generally found in the outer halo of the galaxy, not the disk. Their presence indicates they originated from elsewhere.

      The chemical findings supported this theory. The team detected chemical signatures of supernovae and neutron star mergers but found no signs of white dwarf explosions. Since white dwarfs require billions of years to form, their absence implies that Loki had exhausted itself long before it could generate them.

      The orbits of Loki’s stars unveil a hidden aspect of our galaxy’s history.

      A vibrant collection of stars tightly clustered appears in this image of the globular cluster NGC 1805, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Kalirai

      The situation becomes even more curious. Among the 20 stars, 11 move in the same direction as the Milky Way, while nine go in the opposite direction. This suggests a merger occurred very early, at a time when the orbits within our galaxy were still chaotic and unstable. Researchers believe all 20 stars originated from a single system rather than two.

      In fact, Loki is not the only galaxy the Milky Way has absorbed. A different study from 2020 identified an ancient galaxy named Kraken that merged with our galaxy approximately 11 billion years ago. It seems the Milky Way has always had a substantial appetite.

      Manisha Priyadarshini is a tech and entertainment writer with over nine years of editorial experience.

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