Magellanic Stream

So, imagine you are playing with a stream of water from the hose. You shoot it across the yard and it goes far, right? Well, the Magellanic Stream is kind of like that stream of water.

In outer space, there are big groups of stars and gas and dust that stick together called galaxies. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way. There are two smaller galaxies that are friends with the Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud.

Sometimes, the Milky Way steals some gas from these smaller galaxies and that gas forms a long "stream" which we call the Magellanic Stream. It's kind of like when your little brother takes one of your toys and you get mad and follow him around for a while, except instead of getting your toy back, the Milky Way is taking some gas to use for itself.

Even though it's just gas, scientists are really interested in the Magellanic Stream because it can help us understand how things move in space and how our galaxy is growing and changing over time. Pretty cool, huh?