Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2020

24 GALAXIES The existence of the Sun and everything near it, including life on Earth, could be the result of a passage of the Sagittarius satellite galaxy near the disk of the Milky Way. A recent study suggests that this dwarf galaxy had profound effects on star formation in the Milky Way and probably also on the distribution of stellar masses. A supernova or Sagittarius – which should we thank? by Michele Ferrara revised by Damian G. Allis NASA Solar System Ambassador JULY-AUGUST 2020 I n the back- ground, a graphic recon- struction of our galaxy, made on the basis of NASA images. [Nick Risinger]