Topic: Origins of the Milky Way

[sam]

http://www.physorg.com/news188223693.html

According to current astronomical models, the Milky Way and other large galaxies formed over billions of years in a process that involved interactions between smaller galaxies, and in particular the gradual capture of many stars from nearby dwarf galaxies (small galaxies with hundreds or thousands of times fewer stars than the Milky Way).

[Clive]

But is this a new idea?  Surely we have known about this for the past 30 years?   

[Simon]

Doesn't this contradict the Big Bang theory? 

[Clive]

No, it's two different things Simon.  The Big Bang refers to the origin of the Universe but this refers to how our Milky Way galaxy and all the other large galaxies formed from the amalgamation of smaller galaxies and individual clusters of stars.  It's gravitational attraction at work. 

[sam]

its the case of a couple of billions years later.

And Clive, yeah nothing particularly new here.