A gruesome crime is being commit by our galaxy . Slowly but sure , the milklike Way is perform an turn of galactic cannibalism , slip the gasolene from one of its two nearby companions , the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds . What we were n’t certain is which one was the truthful victim of the Milky Way ’s hunger , but thanks to Hubble , we have now discovered what ’s materialise .

The gravitative attractiveness of these three bodies   has created trails of flatulence between and around them . The investigation focused on the Leading Arm , an arching bridge circuit of gas that connects the Magellanic Clouds to the Milky Way . This is a real - time exercise of gas accumulation , an crucial process in galaxy unification .

As reported in theAstrophysical Journal , the team used the Hubble Space Telescope to learn the composition of the Leading Arm and compared it to the chemical signatures get word in both companion galaxies .

“ There ’s been a dubiousness : Did the natural gas follow from the Large Magellanic Cloud or the Small Magellanic Cloud ? At first glance , it looks like it cross back to the tumid Magellanic Cloud , ” lead author Andrew Fox , of the Space Telescope Science Institute , said in astatement . “ But we ’ve approached that interrogative sentence other than , by asking : What is the lead Arm made of ? Does it have the composition of the Large Magellanic Cloud or the composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud ? ”

The grounds collected shows that , base on composition , the Leading Arm is likely a product of the Small Magellanic Cloud . The complex tug - of - state of war had its victim in the lowly galaxy , which still weighs a walloping 6.5 billion times our Sun and is 3,500 light - years across .

These gas stream are believed to be common around other galaxies , but they are very difficult to study . Even studying the Leading Arm has not been easy . The observations were only potential in ultraviolet light and since this is suck by the ambience , the researchers had to utilise Hubble .

“ Hubble is the only game in townspeople , ” explained Fox . “ All the lines of interest , let in atomic number 8 and atomic number 16 , are in the ultraviolet . So if you work in the optical and infrared , you ca n’t see them . ”

The squad is now planning to expand their observations of the result Arm and eventually map the entire stream of natural gas , which connects the Milky Way to the Magellanic Clouds