Flexi Says: From inside, the Milky Way Galaxy looks like a river of stars. From outside the galaxy, the Milky Way would appear as a spiral. Our solar system is midway out a spiral arm of the Milky Way. However, around 10 billion years ago, the Milky Way galaxy looked very different from what it is now. It was around 4 times more massive and contained more metal. Around 10 billion years ago, the early Milky Way galaxy collided with the Gaia-Enceladus dwarf galaxy which became part of the current Milky Way galaxy. This lead to the formation of the galactic halo around the Milky Way.
