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The Milky Way is being warped and twisted, study says
CNN ^ | February 4, 2019 | Ashley Strickland

Posted on 02/04/2019 2:03:07 PM PST by EdnaMode

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, makes for a pretty space picture, and it looks normal at a distance. But a new 3D map reveals a surprise: The Milky Way is being warped and twisted by its stars.

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, in which stars and gas clouds exist mainly in its two spiral "arms." Our massive neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, is also a spiral. Spiral galaxies usually appear very flat and easy to see through a telescope, said the researchers behind the new map, published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Using 1,339 large, pulsating stars to compile a 3D map of the Milky Way, researchers discovered instead that the galaxy's disk of stars is increasingly twisting, most likely due to the spinning of the disk. And the farther the stars are from the center, the more twisted it becomes.

The stars used to create the map are called classical Cepheids. These are young stars, between four and 20 times the mass of our sun and 100,000 times brighter. Given their mass and brightness, they probably burn through their fuel quickly and die after a few million years -- young for the lifetime of a star.

Previously, astronomers saw evidence of hydrogen clouds becoming warped in the Milky Way. This isn't completely abnormal, because astronomers have noticed the same pattern of progressively twisting spirals in about a dozen other galaxies. But it does help them make more sense of our galaxy.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Chit/Chat; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: cepheids; cepheidvariables; milkyway; spiralgalaxy; stringtheory; themilkyway
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Galactic Warming or Climate Change?
1 posted on 02/04/2019 2:03:07 PM PST by EdnaMode
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To: EdnaMode

WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!...................again...............


2 posted on 02/04/2019 2:04:18 PM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: EdnaMode

"Did someone say "warped and twisted?


3 posted on 02/04/2019 2:05:25 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (Every time a lefty cries "racism", a Trump voter gets his wings.)
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To: EdnaMode

What about the Mars Bars..are they unmolested?


4 posted on 02/04/2019 2:05:45 PM PST by Leep (It's.. (W)all or nothing..!)
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To: EdnaMode

If true, we might be living in one of Arp’s irregular galaxies. Something really big must have merged with the MW, to do this.


5 posted on 02/04/2019 2:06:18 PM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: EdnaMode

“The Milky Way is being warped and twisted, study says”

Must be a bunch of Democrats flying around up there.


6 posted on 02/04/2019 2:07:08 PM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists call 'em what you will they all have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Now THAT is funny!!!!


7 posted on 02/04/2019 2:07:11 PM PST by RatRipper
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To: EdnaMode

Intergalactic socialist perverts at it again?


8 posted on 02/04/2019 2:07:27 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: EdnaMode

That is why I prefer Snickers. The peanuts prevent warpage and twistage by adding just the right amount of rigidity.


9 posted on 02/04/2019 2:08:52 PM PST by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: RatRipper

Yes it is!


10 posted on 02/04/2019 2:09:52 PM PST by jonsie
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To: EdnaMode

But most people agree, it is well worth the effort...


       

11 posted on 02/04/2019 2:12:03 PM PST by Songcraft
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To: EdnaMode

I remember reading an article stating, that if we could see it, the Andromeda galaxy would fill a quarter of the night sky.


12 posted on 02/04/2019 2:14:54 PM PST by aimhigh (1 John 3:23 "And THIS is His commandment . . . ")
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To: EdnaMode

Now American Capitalism is actually destroying the universe itself.


13 posted on 02/04/2019 2:15:22 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: Jeff Chandler
😁
14 posted on 02/04/2019 2:17:09 PM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: SunkenCiv

Warped and twisted ping.


15 posted on 02/04/2019 2:17:29 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: EdnaMode

Kinda like what CNN does with the news ...


16 posted on 02/04/2019 2:29:52 PM PST by IronJack
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To: EdnaMode

Trump’s fault !


17 posted on 02/04/2019 2:30:46 PM PST by beethovenfan (Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin)
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To: EdnaMode; Gamecock; SaveFerris; FredZarguna; PROCON; Army Air Corps; KC_Lion; mylife; Rebelbase; ...
Then maybe we should call it....Twix!


18 posted on 02/04/2019 2:38:01 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: EdnaMode

An artist's impression of a collision between the Milky Way and a smaller dwarf galaxy, such as that which occurred about eight to 10 billion years ago.

Old news.

19 posted on 02/04/2019 2:39:24 PM PST by Aevery_Freeman (Vote like it mattered - I know...it don't)
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To: Leep

Mars bars have been warped and twisted ever since they took the almonds off the top and ground them up and put them in the nougat.


20 posted on 02/04/2019 2:40:18 PM PST by DannyTN
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