There are literally billions upon billions of galaxies out there in the cosmos, but the Milky Way is just a little bit special. It’s a spiral galaxy, which isn’t that rare, but it is exceedingly so amongst our galactic neighbors and now scientists might finally know why.
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00:00There are literally billions upon billions of galaxies out there in the cosmos but ours the
00:08Milky Way is just a little bit special it's a spiral galaxy which isn't that rare but it is
00:12exceedingly so amongst our galactic neighbors and now scientists might finally know why researchers
00:18used an advanced computer simulation of our universe looking back into its infancy around
00:2213.8 billion years ago at that point ours and the surrounding galaxies were only just starting to
00:27form and they found something a bit wild it turns out the Milky Way grew up in a bad neighborhood
00:32where galaxies were constantly ramming into one another these collisions sometimes resulted in
00:36galactic mergers where what would have been two separate galaxies instead meet and become one
00:41if both of the galaxies that merge are spiral galaxies they often become what are called
00:45elliptical galaxies or ones that can appear as an arc connected by a strand of dust and gas and other
00:50material the Milky Way just so happens to be surrounded by many of those very galaxies meaning
00:54our neighbors likely used to be spirals as well and ours somehow survived that chaotic history