Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Milky Way Gets Bigger

Posted by michael on from the now-30%-more-free dept.

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."

2 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Has slashdot become the Internet Inquirer or what? by fejikso · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  2. Re:Hubble by Noren · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Ignoring the "dark side"/ far side confusion others have pointed out:

    In addition to the general advantages of placing a telescope on the moon (no atmosphere), the far ('dark') side of the moon has a unique advantage: it's always shielded from Earth, which is a huge radio source. For this reason, the far side of the moon would be an ideal spot to build a radio telescope.