The Milky Way is BENT OUT OF SHAPE!
Apr 18, 2020 2:41:48 GMT -5
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Post by 1dave on Apr 18, 2020 2:41:48 GMT -5
www.sciencenews.org/article/3-d-map-stars-reveals-milky-way-warped-shape
BENT OUT OF SHAPE A new map of the Milky Way made with Cepheid stars reveals the warped shape of the galaxy. In this image, those stars (green) are overlaid on top of an image of another warped galaxy, NGC 4565. The star icon indicates the sun.
J. Skowron/OGLE/Astronomical Observatory/Univ. of Warsaw
By Emily Conover
August 1, 2019 at 2:00 pm
Like a misshapen potato chip, our home galaxy is warped. A new 3-D map brings the contorted structure of the Milky Way’s disk into better view, thanks to measurements of special stars called Cepheids, scientists report in the Aug. 2 Science.
Making 3-D measurements of the galaxy requires estimating how far away stars are from Earth, typically a matter of guesswork. But unlike other stars, Cepheids vary in brightness over time in a particular way that can be used to determine a precise distance to each star.
Although the Milky Way’s disk is usually depicted as flat, previous observations had revealed that the galaxy is curved at its edges. The new study shows that that the Milky Way is even more warped than scientists had thought, says astronomer Dorota Skowron of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw. If you took a spaceship into deep space and looked back at our galaxy, says Skowron, “you could see by eye” that it’s misshapen.
BENT OUT OF SHAPE A new map of the Milky Way made with Cepheid stars reveals the warped shape of the galaxy. In this image, those stars (green) are overlaid on top of an image of another warped galaxy, NGC 4565. The star icon indicates the sun.
J. Skowron/OGLE/Astronomical Observatory/Univ. of Warsaw
By Emily Conover
August 1, 2019 at 2:00 pm
Like a misshapen potato chip, our home galaxy is warped. A new 3-D map brings the contorted structure of the Milky Way’s disk into better view, thanks to measurements of special stars called Cepheids, scientists report in the Aug. 2 Science.
Making 3-D measurements of the galaxy requires estimating how far away stars are from Earth, typically a matter of guesswork. But unlike other stars, Cepheids vary in brightness over time in a particular way that can be used to determine a precise distance to each star.
Although the Milky Way’s disk is usually depicted as flat, previous observations had revealed that the galaxy is curved at its edges. The new study shows that that the Milky Way is even more warped than scientists had thought, says astronomer Dorota Skowron of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw. If you took a spaceship into deep space and looked back at our galaxy, says Skowron, “you could see by eye” that it’s misshapen.
