# Galactic Timeline — Phase 3

## Phase 3: The First Gatherings

**Time span:** When separate bodies began to share orbits and influence.

### Poem

They did not meet by choice.  
They met because the pull  
was stronger than the space.  

One kept its path.  
Another changed it.  
Neither kept the path  
it would have had alone.  

The light that left them  
carried both stories  
and did not choose  
which one to tell.

### Facts

This phase covers the formation of the first bound systems—pairs, small groups, and early clusters.  

- Gravity began to dominate local motion once densities rose.  
- Orbits became possible when two or more bodies stayed close enough for mutual influence.  
- Collisions and captures occurred; not every encounter produced a stable system.  
- The light we receive now from those regions left long before the systems finished forming.  

The poem treats the gathering as a physical outcome, not a decision. Both bodies are altered by the meeting.

### Spacing note
Phase 2 ends with stable separations.  
Phase 3 begins when some of those separations close again under gravity.  
The interval is the time required for local density to overcome expansion on small scales.

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*Truth before comfort. Evolve, never silently delete.*