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New data obtained using the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA has provided conclusive evidence that a dwarf galaxy collided with and merged into the Milky Way when our galaxy was in its early stages of evolution.

This merger occurred about 11.8 billion years ago, approximately two billion years after the Big Bang. This discovery allows for a correction of existing understandings regarding the history of major mergers that contributed to the formation of the Milky Way, pushing back this knowledge by 1.8 billion years.

Currently, the Milky Way is a massive spiral galaxy containing hundreds of billions of stars. However, it did not always possess this size; our galaxy grew both through the formation of new stars from gas clouds and through the accretion of stars, gas, and dark matter from other galaxies during merger processes.

The last large-scale merger in the Milky Way's history involved the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. This process began more than six billion years ago and is still ongoing.

By investigating even earlier periods, researchers have already found that the Milky Way absorbed another dwarf galaxy known as Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus about ten billion years ago. This ancient merger significantly impacted the structure of our galaxy's stellar disk.

Other, smaller mergers took place between these events. Nevertheless, observations and simulations suggested that another major merger burst preceded these two, although the details of this episode have been subject to intense scientific debate. Now, Hubble has found irrefutable evidence of this earlier merger.

Large-scale astronomical surveys and high-precision data from space missions such as the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia have also played a crucial role in reconstructing the history of our galaxy. The further back scientists attempt to look into the past, the more difficult it becomes to precisely determine what happened. When the Milky Way was young, it was smaller and had dimensions closer to the galaxies it encountered. It is in this little-known past that Hubble was able to conduct this study.

Details of cluster analysis

The team analyzed images from Hubble of 39 globular clusters located within 20 thousand light-years of the Milky Way's center. This region is where traces of our galaxy's oldest mergers should be preserved.

Researchers expected to find in this sample both clusters formed within the younger Milky Way itself and structures accreted during the merger with Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus about ten billion years ago. Thanks to Hubble's sensitive observations, scientists were able to determine the age and metallicity of each cluster with high accuracy. In astronomy, metallicity refers to the abundance of elements heavier than helium.

By combining this information with measurements from the Gaia mission, the team managed to identify a third population of globular clusters in the inner regions of the Milky Way. As Chiara Zerbinati, a co-author of the study and researcher from the University of Bologna, stated: 'Thanks to Hubble's high resolution and image depth, we were able to measure the age and metal content of these clusters with unprecedented accuracy.'

She continued: 'In combination with Gaia measurements, this allowed us to distinguish this population of globular clusters from the others. These are the clusters that were born in LKH and tell us when this galaxy was absorbed by ours and what its mass was.'

The identified clusters were older than those absorbed in the merger with Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus but younger than the clusters formed within the Milky Way itself. Their age and chemical composition indicate that they resulted from another, even older merger, during which the Milky Way absorbed the dwarf galaxy LKH.

The discovery of such a large-scale merger at such an early stage of the Milky Way's formation is significant for understanding our galaxy's evolution. Some previous studies claimed that the earliest phases of the Milky Way's evolution were determined exclusively by stars born within the galaxy itself. Massari noted: 'Some previous studies claimed that the first phases of our galaxy's evolution were determined only by stars born within it.' He added: 'Here we show that stars born in external galaxies must also be taken into account.'

The team plans to continue studying the Milky Way's globular clusters to reconstruct its history and identify all major mergers that occurred throughout the galaxy's evolution. Fernando Aguado-Agelet, a co-author of the study and researcher from the University of Vigo and Universidad de La Laguna (Spain), stated: 'Hubble is observing globular clusters that have never been studied before, and this will help us characterize the merger events that occurred in very ancient periods of the Milky Way's history.'

The results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy this Monday (17). Information that Hubble discovered a galaxy that merged with the Milky Way 11.8 billion years ago first appeared in Olhar Digital.

A blurry image consisting of several pixels in a desert landscape has become fuel for one of the most common internet phenomena: turning insignificant images taken in space into supposed evidence of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

The latest case involves a photograph taken on August 20, 2023, by the navigation camera (NavCam) of NASA's Curiosity rover in Gale Crater. The image shows a small dark blurred object, whose silhouette vaguely resembles a jellyfish floating above a rocky ridge.

The image attracted attention again after the profile @KariSivertzen on X reposted it. This account is known in the community of digital 'scavengers' who study raw files from space agencies in search of anomalies.

This pattern of viral spread follows a clear formula: a raw snapshot is reproduced on social media with deliberate angles and moves to YouTube channels, where it receives the guise of thorough technical analysis to confirm theories about the presence of UFOs in space.

An example of this mechanism is presented in the channel The Angry Astronaut. In a 15-minute analysis, the content creator uses real NASA operational data to create an appearance of scientific rigor and attempt to prove the existence of the alleged UFO.

The host refers to the exact resolution of NavCam (black-and-white sensors with a resolution of 1 megapixel and 0.82 mrad/pixel), points out a time interval of exactly 13 seconds between frames, and performs trigonometric calculations to estimate the distance (150 meters) and the minimum speed the object would have needed to develop to exit the field of view (from 1.4 km/h to 35 km/h).

However, mathematics and hardware specifications serve only as a technical pretext to justify conclusions that lack methodological support. The central premise of the video ignores the simplest explanations—such as sensor malfunction, reading noise, or pareidolia (the optical illusion effect)—and immediately jumps to extraordinary scenarios.

At some point, the narrator draws artificial parallels with UFOs in the form of a 'jellyfish,' recorded by American military personnel in Iraq in 2017, and challenges known physics: to explain how the alleged craft could fly in the thin Martian atmosphere (only 1% of Earth's density) without kicking up dust from the surface or using rotors like the Ingenuity helicopter, the video begins to speculate about a 'magnetohydrodynamic drive,' 'negative mass' accumulated in the core of celestial bodies, and 'exotic physics.' Classifying the options, he rejects geology and considers the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial origin for the UFO as the most plausible explanation for the phenomenon.

This approach demonstrates how modern sensationalism disguises itself as popular science awareness: it relies on real data to gain viewer trust, and then distorts the scientific method to steer the public toward fantastical conclusions.

Scientists and planetary engineers analyze the same data through the lens of methodological skepticism, looking for answers in optical physics and the operation of space instruments to counter the sensationalism of virtual channels.

Astronomer Marcelo Zurita, president of the Paraíba Astronomy Association (APA), member of the Brazilian Astronomical Society (SAB), technical director of the Brazilian Meteor Observation Network (BRAMON), and columnist for Olhar Digital, strongly warns about the need for caution.

Recalling Carl Sagan's classic maxim, the specialist emphasizes that 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' and believes that the available material is merely a 'spot, a blur on a point image taken by Curiosity.'

Examining the original file published by NASA, Zurita identifies clear signs of a technical failure in the creation of the photograph. The strongest sign is the framing geometry: while the horizon of the Martian landscape is noticeably tilted, the dark spot remains parallel to the edges of the image. For the astronomer, this inconsistency relative to the ground is a 'very strong sign of an image artifact, i.e., a focus error, a capture error,' rather than the registration of a physical body flying over Mars.

Another critical contradiction lies in the optical physics of the lenses. NavCams, designed for mapping and close focus, naturally leave distant terrain and rocks blurred in the background. In contrast, the anomaly exhibits sharp contours. Zurita explains that this diverging sharpness limits the scenarios to a few viable interpretations within robot engineering. 'It indicates either a real object, but much closer to the camera, or an image artifact.'

Without cross-confirmation from other angles, the speculations about magnetohydrodynamic drives and exotic physics promoted by channels like The Angry Astronaut collapse. The specialist stresses that the lack of data prevents any claims about extraterrestrial artifacts. Since there is an infinitely more logical explanation based on rover mechanics, Zurita concludes that he would discard the hypothesis of an alien spacecraft 'or place it at the end of the list of possibilities for this image.'

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In February 2025, a photograph taken on Mars on January 30, 2014, reappeared on social media. This image, published by the 'UFO mania' account on X, depicts a rock formation that, depending on the angle, resembles a small door. The unusual appearance fueled theories about a possible alien portal or passage into the planet. However, the explanation is much simpler: it is a natural crack in the Martian rock.

A similar image received attention in 2022. At that time, NASA explained to BBC News Mundo that the supposed door was a small fissure registered with high magnification. The image was part of the 'Sol 3466' series taken by the Curiosity rover on May 7 of that year.

According to scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the opening is about 30 centimeters wide and 45 centimeters long. It formed where several cracks intersected.

British researcher Neil Hodgson also determined its natural origin. According to him, erosion of ancient rock layers, formed about 4 billion years ago, created this structure.

The impression of a door is related to pareidolia—a phenomenon where the brain recognizes familiar shapes in random patterns, such as faces in shadows or animals in clouds. Astrophysicist Carl Sagan explained in his book 'Cosmos' that this evolutionary ability was vital for the survival of early humans. If an ancestor saw something resembling a predator among trees, the safest reaction would be to run, even if it later turned out to be just a play of light and shadow. Those who hesitated risked not surviving. This mechanism is active today, making us see patterns even when they are not there.