Astronomers claim to have found evidence of at least 11 new streams of stars in the Milky Way, a discovery which they claim could soon provide fresh forensic evidence of violence in the spiral galaxy.

Only two streams were previously known to actually exist in the area. But, a new study of the velocities of stars in Milky Way's inner halo, a bubble-like region that surrounds the galactic centre, has led to the discovery of 11 streams.

According to the astronomers, the stars in the proposed streams move at roughly the same speed which suggests they all originate from the same place -- most likely small galaxies that were pulled in to create the Milky Way.

A number of other dramatic structures, such as a bright stellar stream known as Sagittarius, sit farther from the galactic centre, where they can be easily spotted because the stars appear closely clumped together.

"These things definitely won't make the same kind of pretty pictures on the sky that previous stream discoveries did," the 'New Scientist' quoted lead astronomer Kevin Schlaufman of University of California as saying.

In fact, the 11 candidate streams were identified in a study of 100 small patches of the sky.

According to the astronomers, extrapolating that rate outwards suggests the entire inner 75,000 light years of the galaxy may contain close to 1,000 separate streams of stars -- ripped from as many galaxies.

But it may be too early to say for certain whether all of the patches of uniformly moving stars are distinct streams. Some may constitute the same stream, which is simply being seen in two different parts of the sky.

"The clumps do seem to have distinct velocities -- probably more different than one would expect if you looked at the same feature from different places on the sky," Schlaufman said.