Let’s face it, stars, even individual stars, are often harder to understand then seems rational. It is particularly amazing when researchers make claims about what they believe can be learned from one random star orbiting through the Milky Way. According astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the star nu Indi can, on its own, is enough to provide a date to our galaxy’s collision with the Gaia-Enceladus dwarf galaxy. Here’s how they did it: They looked at its composition and claimed it formed in the halo. Its current position and orbit, however, mean that it got sent tumbling into the disk of the galaxy. By working it’s orbit backwards, they concluded that interactions during the our Milky’s collision roughly 11.5 billion years ago changed the stars orbit. I’m going to admit, this research seems like a bit of a stretch to me, but while I’m not convinced there are absolutely right, everything they are saying is consistent with everything they are observing – I’m just not willing to say this is the only explanation for this star’s position.

But this is a reminder that science is a process and a dialogue. We say what we think is true and argue for why it is true, and then we wait to see if we are proven or disproven by the course of time and further observations. I want these folks and their far out set of conclusions to be true, and here is to hoping that more observations and time bring more confidence to these results.

The fact that science is an evolving story is often lost in the moment to moment telling of the story. As we gather more data our understanding must adapt and yesterday’s explanations don’t necessarily match today’s truths. Nowhere in science is this seen more clearly than in our study of climate change. As we get more data, and as the world around us changes in ways we didn’t know was possible, our understanding of the future has to constantly cope with this new data. 

See the press release at:

Merger of Milky Way with dwarf galaxy dated (Max Planck)