The Corrugated Galaxy The disk of the Milky Way Galaxy disk may actually be rippled.
Posted on 05/04/2015 2:19:04 PM PDT by LibWhacker
The Corrugated Galaxy The disk of the Milky Way Galaxy disk may actually be rippled.
Two ringlike structures of stars wrapping around the Milky Way's outer disk now appear to belong to the disk itself.
The results, outlined in a new study, show that the disk is about 60 percent larger than previously thought. Not only do the results extend the size of the Milky Way, they also reveal a rippling pattern, which raises intriguing questions about what sent wavelike fluctuations rippling through the disk.
The researchers said the likely culprit was a dwarf galaxy. It might have plunged through the Milky Way's center long ago, sparking the rippling patterns astronomers have now detected for the first time.
Roughly 15 years ago, Heidi Newberg, an astronomer at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and her colleagues found a group of stars beyond the disk's outermost edge. The so-called Monoceros Ring is about 60,000 light-years from the galactic center (just beyond where the disk was thought to end at 50,000 light-years).
Over the years, astronomers were divided into two camps regarding the origins of the ring. Some argued that it was simply a tidal stream: The debris of a dwarf galaxy that fell into the Milky Way and was stretched in the process. Others argued that the ring is a part of the disk. The issue, however, is that the ring is slightly above the plane of the disk. So astronomers in the latter camp attributed that to the fact that the disk flares up toward the edge.
Enter Yan Xu, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatories of China. Xu, Newberg and colleagues took a second look at the problem using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With improved data compared to previous studies, they found four total structures in and just outside what is currently considered the Milky Way's outer disk. The third structure was the highly debated Monoceros ring, and the fourth structure was the Triangulum Andromeda Stream, located 70,000 light-years from the galactic center.
All four structures alternated with respect to the disk. They went from above it, to below it, to above it, to below it. Newberg, who was in the tidal stream camp, was surprised that the ring and three other structures were actually a part of an oscillating disk.
"We didn't know how a disk could go up and down," said Newberg. Luckily, computer simulations by various teams showed that a dwarf galaxy falling into the Milky Way might create a similar pattern. "When it goes through, it can disturb the disk just like a pebble disturbs water in a puddle," said Newberg. "And that wave can propagate through the disk from that event."
This new picture makes sense, said Newberg. It even matches observations of the gases in the disk, which have long been observed as rippled. But the implications extend far beyond a corrugated disk.
"If it's true that the Monoceros Ring and the Triangulum Andromeda structure are part of this oscillatory pattern, then the stellar disk goes out way further than the textbook tells us it ought to be," said Newberg. Instead of extending nearly 100,000 light-years from one side to the other, it would be more like 160,000 light-years wide.
This brings the Milky Way's size up to that of Andromeda. The Milky Way's small radius in comparison to Andromeda's larger radius has always puzzled astronomers, because the two galaxies have roughly the same mass.
The team plans to further map the rippled disk of Earth's galaxy and better match their results to models.
>> Not only do the results extend the size of the Milky Way
Srsly?
Our fuzzy math is able to “extend the size” of one of the countless galaxies YHWH created?
Excuse me while I laugh at the arrogance of science writers.
Here’s how it REALLY is... “Scientist change their feeble GUESS of the size of YHWH’s galaxy.”
Ribbed, for more stimulation?
Astronomers can quite easily calculate the distance to stars, particularly within our own galaxy. The only question prior to this size update was whether or not that outer ring should be considered part of the galaxy. They apparently now believe it is.
Oh, for crying out loud. If you believe the claim is that they have extended the actual physical size of the galaxy, you "srsly" need a reading lesson.
I’m making a point about the arrogance of man and man’s pride.
But — for crying out loud — scientists as a group are rather arrogant about the extent of their “knowledge” — even as they continuously find the need to “revise” it.
And science writers, as a group, take theory and conjecture and portray it as absolute fact quite a bit more than they should.
But lighten up, Francis — I mean, YHWH is certainly laughing over it!
Srsly.
Why is it “arrogant” of them to come up with an estimate for the size of the galaxy?
>> Why is it “arrogant” of them to come up with an estimate for the size of the galaxy?
And then call it what it is — a best guess based on incomplete knowledge?
Nothing at all wrong with *that*.
But that’s not how the writers frame it.
I do agree that they often prematurely come to conclusions and state that various things are fact when the reality is far from it. The history of science is littered with such premature conclusions.
So we're currently hanging around in the restroom vending machine at some celestial truck stop?
People in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th millenniums bc were not unaware of scientific and technological innovations.
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Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Aw, yeah, baby
Galactic Subway station: http://www.skittlez.co.uk/worldofblackout/blogref/StarWarsTubeMapFinal.jpg
Here’s the hit and run galaxy referred to in the article: http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/212721-SWTOR%20galaxy%20map%20header.jpg
May the 4th be with you.
>> The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Yes, and Amen. The Creator of the Universe *wants* us to “do science” and learn about His creation! And in so doing, give GOD the glory!
Se also Proverbs 25:2 — “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
Finally, Psalms 19:1 — “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
The problem is not with doing science, but with failing to remember and praise the One who CREATED the marvelous systems we study that constitute, and govern, our universe!
The problem is not with doing science, but with failing to remember and praise the One who CREATED the marvelous systems we study that constitute, and govern, our universe!
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Agree. Amen. Otherwise you get this.
Genesis 11:1-9New International Version (NIV)
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Nervous Tick: There are two kinds of degrees for guys who come out of universities. The first is hard science degree: math, physics, biology,chemistry. The second is a soft science degree: psychology,sociology, political science. Then there are grey areas like economics or paleontology.
The hard sciences pretty much self reinforce rigorous thinking. But they are broad rivers of thought that can be channeled. They split off from the religious view about +-500 years ago in the early 1600’s. You can see the split with the oft quoted Descartes “Tree of Knowledge”. Google it. You’ll see that Descartes places theology as a sub—branch of philosophy—which by definition theology is not. Why not? because philosophy is man centered whereas theology is God centered. So the natural sciences have been off on a merry chase for hundreds of years until about 40 years ago when the natural sciences concluded that the universe began about 13.5 billion years ago with a big bang. Something came from nothing. The trouble is that that’s pretty much what genesis 1:1 says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ex nihilo from nothing. He spoke the universe into being.
Worse—for atheists— among the geneticists looking deep into the genetic code—you don’t have to push them very much to get them to admit that what they’re looking at looks like a ancient hieroglyphics. Its very spooky for these guys. Francis Crick discoverer of the double helix proposed that the way inorganic chemistry became organic chemistry was that space aliens seeded earth. http://creation.com/designed-by-aliens-crick-watson-atheism-panspermia
So the glory days of atheism have passed. That’s the good news.
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