"The leading edge of this cloud is already interacting with gas from our Galaxy. This is most likely a gas cloud left over from the formation of the Milky Way or gas stripped from a neighbor galaxy. When it hits, it could set off a tremendous burst of star formation. Many of those stars will be very massive, rushing through their lives quickly and exploding as supernovae. Over a few million years, it'll look like a celestial New Year's celebration, with huge firecrackers going off in that region of the Galaxy," said one of the astronomers who headed a study to research the cloud, Felix J. Lockman of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater also participated.
Astronomers used the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to study the cloud which was first discovered by an astronomer in 1963. The study found that as many as a million new stars, much like our own Sun, could form from the gas when it does collide with our galaxy.
Currently it is 8,000 light years away from full impact of our galaxy, and is traveling at over 150 miles a second. It is 2,500 light-years wide and over 11,000 light years long. Astronomers believe it will strike at a 45-degree angle.
It was earlier believed that the cloud was traveling away, or might have even been part of the Milky Way itself, but due to the technology at the time images were not clear enough to see what was really happening. Astronomers today were able to capture over 40,000 different images of the cloud. Now astronomers have determined that it is in fact moving toward the galaxy, and pushing the gases of our galaxy up onto ourselves.
"If you could see this cloud with your eyes, it would be a very impressive sight in the night sky. From tip to tail it would cover almost as much sky as the Orion constellation. But as far as we know it is made entirely of gas -- no one has found a single star in it," added Lockman.