WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 - A previously unrecognized galaxy appears to be merging with the Milky Way, bringing hundreds of thousands of stars into our home galaxy that no one has noticed until now, astronomers said Monday.

A survey of the northern sky has detected a huge and diffuse structure within the confines of the Milky Way that does not seem to fit in with other parts of the galaxy that contains our solar system.

Robert H. Lupton of Princeton University told a meeting of the American Astronomical Society that the large, faint collection of stars rises almost perpendicular to the flat, spiral disk of the Milky Way. The most likely interpretation of the structure, the astronomer said, is that it is a dwarf galaxy that has been merging with our galaxy.

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Guys, what's your say about this topic?

I know it's a pretty old topic but how come I've only heard of this? and how come that we've just noticed it now?

Well, all of these stars are way too far away to see with the naked eye. We've also got a halo of stars around the galaxy, and it is hard to see in the plane of the galaxy. I'm sure people have seen these stars in other sky surveys, probably just took a little leap of insight to see that it was a coherent structure.

The answer is found by getting up to speed on SDSS reports, regarding this topic.