Warped galaxy with the distribution of young stars (Cepheids) in its disk as inferred from the Milky Way Cepheids.
J. Skowron/OGLE/Astronomical Obs
Posted on 08/05/2019 4:01:46 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with curved arms stretching out into space. Most depictions of our galaxy show it as being rather flat, but data from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment at the university suggests the opposite.
The team, who describe our galaxy as being less a flat disc and more a “wobbly, uncooked pizza crust,” mapped the position of a specific type of star called Cepheids. Cepheids are pulsating stars and it’s easy for researchers to measure the distance between them and Earth. Using data from 2,431 Cepheids, the team was able to create its incredibly detailed map of the Milky Way.
Along with providing the most accurate look at the shape of our galaxy to date, the scientists also learned some interesting things about the stars they spotted along the way. Cepheids, it turns out, tend to be found in groups, and that might mean that they tend to form bursts.
Warped galaxy with the distribution of young stars (Cepheids) in its disk as inferred from the Milky Way Cepheids.
J. Skowron/OGLE/Astronomical Obs
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Of course.
Abd the headlines will be something like: “You thought the galaxy was warped, but you were wrong.”
Ugh... before you do that, check out who is moving into the Andromeda ‘hood. Can you say, “Plummeting property values? I knew you could.”
That’s it, I’m moving to Andromeda.
I’ve had my shots.
Ya gotta be quick around here, paisan.
CC
But global warming is a settled science for certain, right?
See where I’m going with this?
We have a perfectly good (indeed, OUTSTANDING!) telescope already in space. A few modifications, remove the solar panels, replace them with deep space SNAP generators. Add an ion drive rocket, a bigger data transceiver, upgraded gyros, and a few other odds and sods. Either fully gimbal mount, or yoke mount it to orient the telescope to roughly the galactic plane and very slowly spin the entire assembly like a bottle so that the telescope itself periodically pans the entire galaxy (daily, weekly, monthly?).
Visualize this as the telescope being the top bar of a ‘T’ (or tau) with the enhanced data link, ion engine, and such forming the stem of the ‘T’.
At a very modest 0.01g acceleration, it would be 10,000 AU above the galactic plane in 5 1/2 years.
We’d have clear photos, clear OPTICAL photos of the galactic core. We’d have millions of images of our local neighborhood, and a very long baseline for exactly calibrating distances to stars in our own galaxy.
We’d be able to actually see the other arms of our galaxy! Right now we’re stuck down in the smog, and like a mid 70s Angelino, we can’t even see the local mountains! (except they had occasional clear days!)
LOL!!
No wonder life is such a bumpy ride.
Interesting but useless knowledge.
Wow, that explains everything.......
Is our galaxy really that thin? Seems hard to believe that 10,000 AU wouldn’t just put the telescope only infinitesimally higher, still deep inside the galactic cloud of stars.
That’s a really good idea.
Get some funding and be off to the stars...
Roflol ! You nailed it !
what that much displacement give you is a chance to look over the top of the thickest part of the smog and catch a clearer view of the core.
Ever fly out of LAX? Near the top of the smog a few hundred feet make all the difference in the world!
Smarter folks can give you a better answer as to how much visibility improvement, and also whether we get more bang for the buck going UP or DOWN out of the galactic plane...
You have absolutely NO imagination.
Those boffins would also probably do something terribly clever like get gravitational boosts from a gas giant or two...
The galaxy is warped and so is the earth. Fits
Andromeda is a beautiful galaxy with an estimated 1 trillion stars. Probably many of the stars have plents revolving around them. But none of the planets have chocolate. So might as well stay on earth.
Ooh pretty.
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