Slashdot Mirror
Milky Way Gets Bigger
FU_Fish writes "Australian scientists have discovered a new arm reaching out from our beloved Milky Way. The arm is 60,000 light years away from the center of the galaxy and roughly 6,500 light years thick. I guess my dream of visiting every star in our galaxy just got a bit tougher."
Oh, so Al Roker hasn't actually lost weight - it's the space around him that's gotten bigger?
That and the 3 Musketeers. Are they bigger too? Will they charge the same?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Astronomers are worried if the truth gets out, American taxpayers will be bankrupted by John Ashcroft's attempts to get said 'arm' covered up.
The picture they chose for the article looks more like a typical shot of the core in Sagittarius from Earth. "Bird's-eye view" in this context would probably mean "seen from galactic north".
Danke tres mucho, tovarishch.
So, I was just thinking. Brainstorming really. I had a thought about a real life use for moon colonization.
Mount a telescope on the dark side of the moon.
Shielded from the light of the sun, and mounted to a big solid object. The moon.
Mapping the skies would be simple. Point the telescope straight out, take pictures every few minutes. Do that for a few months and you have detailed pictures of all the in a donut shaped space around you. Change angles and repeat. Although, the best you could ever do is a big donut shaped area. Straight up and straight down would be hard. But I am sure it'd be worth it.
Pretty Pictures!
that there's actually a part of the galaxy Star Trek hasn't explored yet? Good! Time for a new series instead of the prequel! ;)
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
A bit offtopic but, I don't think the ./ audience needs a title like "Milky Way gets bigger" instead of "New arm of Milky Way galaxy discovered" to be interested in the article.
C'mon people we need to start catching these at a minimum of 2,000 light year thickness so that we can better handle our space arms. Once you get into the 5-6,000 LYT's you're basically dealing with a crazy runaway moose.
796F75617265616E65726400
In your face, Andromeda!
The parent is either an absolute imbecile or a troll.
It's called "The delphic expanse." It's a strange, scary place where the laws of physics are turned upside down. Flesh is distorted, bodies are turned inside out, and Rick Bergman is considered creative and clever. You wouldn't want to go there.
I guess my dream of visiting every star in our galaxy just got a bit tougher.
...We can surf through Milky Way in our handy dandy Black Hole at a mere '5000 km/sec.'
How would you get the data back to the earth, with the MOON in the way? We only face one side of the moon, and there would be no way without a network of satellites around the moon to receive the image data back on earth.
Hmm... Let's see...
That's about 100 billion stars (best estimate), so if you started today, and lived another 100 years (lucky you), you'd have to visit about 1 billion stars a year. That would mean about 3 million stars a day or about 100,000 stars every hour. So you'd only have to visit about 30 stars every second. How hard could that be?
"There is no dark side of the moon. It's all dark."
Pink Floyd
Now I'm starting to feel sorry for the milky way, anyone with my 5 arm pits must be rank!
ba dum bing babeee!
Now to answer the age old question, which galaxy arm pit is earth in exactly?
Then it'll have another new arm, then a new leg. Who knows? Before we know it our solar system may up and run off on us!
I couldn't think of a sig.
"I guess my dream of visiting every star in our galaxy just got a bit tougher."
Yes, but are you going to insult everybody in it? Individually, personally, one by one, and by alphabetical order?
I miss Douglas Adams
Path to India discovered! The Earth gets rounder!
Ceci n'est pas une sig
Exactly - I thought maybe there was a new size to fill the gap after "Fun Size" and "King Size" for the Milky Way and Snickers bars...
Whaddya mean it doesn't involve chocolate???
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
California biologists have discovered a additional arm on Michael Jackson.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
This is not a birds-eye view. It's the view of the Milkyway from earth when you look towards the Center with Infrared Telescopes. If you want to see a real bird-eye view of the Milkyway spiral pattern you have to go here.
Maybe it's time to take a look again at dark matter. This newly found ring has probably some good mass, however I don't know if it really goes for all the missing matter. I guess there is research on velocity inside our galazy, not only Doppler shift in other galaxies.
reason defies logic
Seems like most posters, the original article submitter FU_Fish, and /. editor michael did not actually RTFA, or at least not very well. This new arm is gas, not stars, and it may just be an extension of an arm we already know about.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
Hmmm? Could it really be that the galaxy is bigger than we thought or our scientists are running out of new idea's so they go and make shit up to keep funding? The world will never know.
"Why ban weapons? Just make the ammo cost like $5000 a round... then only the rich ones can kill" - Confusedious
Actually, at the North and South poles of the moon there are craters that don't recieve any sunlight at the bottom, ever. Some people have advocated putting optical telescopes there. Others have discussed the proposition of building a circumlunar railway with the telescope mounted on it so that the telescope could always be on the dark side of the moon (the moon's rotation is a lot slower and it's a lot smaller, making the distance and speeds actually feasible.)
Despite those, the benefits of a radio telescope that you pointed out are still probably the most promising benefits of a lunar presence.