Now that's some serious hunger. Ten billion years ago, our own Milky Way galaxy "cannibalized" a smaller nearby galaxy, according to a new study published Monday.

The violent collision didn't settle down for millions of years, the study authors said.

"It's a very gradual process – it's not something like a car crash," study lead author Carme Gallart of the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain told AFP . "It's very massive so it happens slowly in human terms, (but) not so slowly in cosmic time."

The merger provided the Milky Way with the material to create new stars and also gave it its current familiar appearance.