Astronomers from CSIRO have recently discovered, with the help of radio telescopes at Parkes and Narrabri, that gas coming from the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds is penetrating through the material disk of the Milky Way right over to the other side. Such gas flow observations may eventually provide data that would reveal the ultimate fate of the little galaxies, in the near vicinity of our Milky Way.

The leak of matter was dubbed HVC306-2+230 and is spanning all the way from the Magellanic cloud to the material disk of our galaxy, piercing it in a location about 70 thousands light-years away, near the Souther Cross. According to CSIRO astronomer Dr. Naomi McClure-Griffiths, from the Australia Telescope National Facility, such a discovery represents an important find for the astronomical community, especially while taking into consideration the fact that gas features are very hard to spot from great distances.

Previously, astronomers studying the Magellanic Clouds believed that the two were satellites of the Milky Way and orbited us many times in the past, meaning that in the distant future the two would have been destroyed by the gravitational interactions with our galaxy. However, measurements conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed something odd about the Magellanic Clouds. They were moving too fast to be in an orbit around our Milky Way, thus they couldn't have originated in the near vicinity. The Magellanic Clouds must have joined the Local Group relatively recently.

Astronomers believe that they can predict the movement of the small galaxy through the Local Group, by tracking the position of the Leading Arm of the galaxy, which is intersecting the matter disk of the Milky Way; because essentially, where the Leading Arm is going, the rest of the galaxy should follow. However, the speed of the Magellanic Cloud is not the only peculiar thing about it, as the intrusion of the Leading Arm can only be explained through a model which assumes that it is a satellite of our galaxy. Nonetheless, the final outcome will be the same, the Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way are destined to collide and merge in the distant future.