Posted on 04/04/2018 9:19:56 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Hundreds of billions of stars make up the barred spiral galaxy that we call home. The Milky Ways 100,000 light-year diameter houses stars of different masses, luminosities, and ages, with new stars constantly being added to the mix. Star formation isnt showing signs of slowing down, and this includes births at the outer edges of the galaxy. Could these young stars forming near the galactic edge be expanding the size of the Milky Way?
A team of researchers, led by Ph.D. candidate Cristina Martínez-Lombilla of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain, presented research supporting this idea at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science on April 3.
Older, lower-mass stars are abundant near the galaxys center and in the halo that looms around the Milky Ways disk, while younger stars form within the disk itself (the spiral arms). Because some of these hotbeds for star formation lie near the disks edge, the researchers set out to study how these new additions could impact the Milky Ways dimensions.
However, the issue with studying the expansion of the Milky Way is our location a comprehensive viewpoint is difficult to obtain when youre within the object of observation. To get a clearer perspective, the researchers studied nearby spiral galaxies with similar properties to our own. In particular, they set their sights on NGC 4565 ............
They measured the light emitted from these areas to determine the types of stars present, which were mainly young blue stars, and also measured their movement within the region to determine how long it takes them to start traveling outward. Their calculations show that, based on star motions, galaxies similar to the Milky Way are expanding by about 1,640 feet (500 meters) per second.
(Excerpt) Read more at astronomy.com ...
Is it an observer thing related to general relativity? If we were in another galaxy, like Andromeda and made the measurements of the Milky Way galaxy, maybe expansion would be obvious. Like an observer in a rocket ship traveling at the speed of light, nothing looks out-of-the-ordinary in his rocket ship; however, he would suggest everything else is changing...
Thanks. You win my Morning Chuckle prize.
LOL You’re like me on this one. When I make such an error I make the excuse that sometimes my fingers type faster than my brain thinks.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
In the 'Great Debate' of 1920, Shapley was just plain wrong about the structure of the Universe, which he said was the same as our galaxy, a ridiculous boner given the actual size of the universe. Curtis merely underestimated the size of the Milky Way, but said our galaxy was one of many and that the spiral nebulae were other galaxies and very far off. Mostly both are said to be a little right and a little wrong, given what is now known, and that the debate was a draw, but it is clear and obvious that while Shapley was overstating the size of the Milky Way by about three times, Curtis was underestimating it by three times, and had everything else correct. My guess is, Shapley's disgraceful hardcore commie politics are the main reason he's spoken of with such high regard.
There would still be some deflection due to gravity.
Dude, I plan on still being here.
There are many effects resulting from galaxy collision, but colliding stars is not one of them. Gravitational distortion destroys the spiral structures if they’re roughly equally sized, else one just destroys the other. Galaxies are also made of gas, and that does collide, resulting in a sudden starburst where all the gas in the disk region is converted to stars. After that, no more star formation, but a huge number of additional population II stars (low metallicity). This is how elliptical galaxies form. Eventually all the large bright high-mass but short lifetime stars die off and all you have are small reddish stars.
We'll have to see if the Preservers want to beef up the barrier
The Milky Way seemed bigger back then because your borders were much smaller. (Meaning you were kid sized).
Who f-ing cares?
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