With so much irregular structure in the outer Galaxy, it looks as though the Milky Way is still growing, by cannibalizing smaller galaxies that fall into it.

Some of the stars in this Milky Way companion have been seen with telescopes for centuries. But because the galaxy is so close, its stars are spread over a huge swath of the sky, and they always used to be lost in the sea of more numerous Milky Way stars. This galaxy is so big, we couldn't see it before.

It's clear that the Milky Way has a structure like those, but it's hard to tell being in it.

We know less about the structure of our own galaxy than we do about many nearby galaxies like Andromeda. We literally can't see the forest for the trees because we are embedded inside our own galaxy, and interstellar dust blocks our view.

The dynamics within the core of this neighboring galaxy may be more common than we think. Our own Milky Way apparently has even younger stars close to its own black hole. It seems unlikely that only the closest two big galaxies should have this odd activity. So this behavior may not be the exception but the rule. And we have found other galaxies that have a double nucleus.

all hopes there, so close to each other,
are pulled into the void every night;
when a band of pale twinkles milking the way
across the divine breadth of sky
where every heart belongs.
- From the poem "The Universe In Blossom