Gaia Sausage
| Gaia Sausage | |
|---|---|
Artist’s impression of debris from the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus galaxy. Yellow arrows represent the positions and velocities of stars originating from the dwarf galaxy, the data taken from a simulated merger with the Milky Way with similar properties to the one believed to have occurred. | |
| Observation data | |
| Constellation | multiple |
| Group or cluster | Local Group |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | Dwarf galaxy |
| Mass | 5×1010 M☉ |
| Other designations | |
| Gaia Enceladus Enceladus Galaxy | |
The Gaia Sausage or Gaia Enceladus is the remains of a dwarf galaxy (known as the Sausage Galaxy, Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage, or Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus) that merged with the Milky Way about 8–11 billion years ago. At least eight globular clusters were added to the Milky Way along with 50 billion solar masses of stars, gas and dark matter. It represents the last major merger of the Milky Way.