The transformation of the Milky Way

Vasily Belokurov (IOA, Cambridge)

October 28, 2021

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Abstract: With its most recent data releases, European Space Agency’s Gaia mission revealed the fossilised record of a dramatic – and long suspected – accretion event in the distant past of our Galaxy. This head-on collision with a massive dwarf galaxy was a turning point in the evolution of the Milky Way and unleashed a series of transformations that forever changed the Galaxy. This unprecedented metamorphosis is the focus of this talk. I will discuss the time, the geometry and the kinematics of the interaction, and elucidate the response of the Milky Way to the massive intruder.