We reproduce the statement issued by Robert Kirshner, Executive Director of the TMT International Observatory (TIO), regarding the decision by TIO partners not to accept the funding proposal put forward by Spain for the TMT site at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. Statement from TMT International Observatory on Spain’s Financing Proposal “Following TIO's September 18 letter to Minister Morant, we want to share more about our decision. TIO’s partners gave Spain’s financing proposal extensive and careful consideration, and ultimately were not able to accept the proposal. Therefore, TIO

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way galaxy in the earliest phases of its evolution. This finding extends our knowledge of our galaxy’s history 1.8 billion years farther back in time than before. The results were published today in the journal Nature Astronomy . The Milky Way today is a massive spiral galaxy home to hundreds of billions of stars. However, our galaxy wasn’t always so large; it has grown by