... Tonight's Sky . ... Observing . ... milky way . ... New Milky Way neighbor . ... 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," he explains. ... Astronomers had long assumed the formation of galaxies like the Milky Way was a slow, steady process that distributed stars smoothly. ... Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter....