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Once it’s there, minerals begin to accrete around this core.

Through the telescope, researchers were able to see signals from large amounts of gas that accumulate and accrete onto a mini-galaxy in the process of being built.

In astronomy, this is known as "retrograde motion" and is a tipoff that an object was once "accreted," or drawn in from elsewhere.

In the long run, such "accreted stars" will also account for some of the stellar population of the newly-formed combined galaxy.

Merger signatures are equally common in galaxies with and without accreting supermassive black holes.