HUBBLE ATLAS
LKH Milky Way Merger Illustration — image from the Hubble Space Telescope

Illustrations

LKH Milky Way Merger Illustration

August 17, 2026 · NASA

Zoom to full resolution Original on NASA ↗

About 12 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy known as LKH (left) collided with a young Milky Way (right) and merged with it. This artist's concept portrays that collision. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope uncovered definitive evidence of this long-ago collision by studying ancient globular star clusters.