ScienceDaily: Space & Time News

In its early days, the Milky Way was like a giant smoothie, as if galaxies consisting of billions of stars, and an enormous amount of gas had been thrown together into a gigantic blender. But a new study picks apart this mixture by analyzing individual stars to identify which originated inside the galaxy and which began 'life' outside. "Although the Milky Way is our home galaxy, we still do not understand how it formed and evolved," says researcher Sven Buder from the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) and the Australian National University (ANU). His paper, published this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, analyses the light from stars in detail, helping to understand what elements went into the creation of the Milky Way we know today.