# s-astro: The Smith Cloud return

<< The old adage "what goes up must come down" even applies to an immense cloud of hydrogen gas outside our Milky Way galaxy >>

<<  The Smith Cloud is following a ballistic trajectory and will plow back into the Milky Way's disk in about 30 million years. When it does, astronomers believe it will ignite a spectacular burst of star formation, perhaps providing enough gas to make 2 million suns >>

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/04

Andrew J. Fox, Nicolas Lehner, et al. On the metallicity and origin of the smith high-velocity cloud. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 816, Number 1.

http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/816/1/L11