The general picture of galaxy growth is that of a slow and steady process. Scientific consensus has concluded that gas accumulates in their disks, which triggers star formation and causes the galaxy to expand continuously over billions of years. However, a new study authored by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) challenges this view, at least for some galaxies. This research used data from the new Transient Survey Telescope (TST) at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife) to discover that the spiral galaxy Messier 74 (M74), one of the most studied in the sky, hides a
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