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The Milky Way is Not a Spiral?
ETEQ writes "Space.com reports that new data from the Spitzer Space Telescope showing that the Milky Way is in fact a barred spiral! Looks like all our old astronomy textbooks will have to be thrown away..."
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This is actually more of a confirmation of prior work. See the following, for example, which dates back two years.
Title: The Galactic Bar
Authors: Merrifield, M. R.
Journal: Milky Way Surveys: The Structure and Evolution of our Galaxy, Proceedings of ASP Conference #317. The 5th Boston University Astrophysics Conference held 15-17 June, 2003 at Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. Edited by Dan Clemens, Ronak Shah, and Teresa Brainerd. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2004., p.289
Abstract:
Like the majority of spiral galaxies, the Milky Way contains a central non-axisymmetric bar component. Our position in the Galactic plane renders it rather hard to see, but also allows us to make measurements of the bar that are completely unobtainable for any other system. This paper reviews the evidence for a bar that can be gleaned from the many extensive surveys of both gas and stars in the Milky Way. We introduce some simplified models to show how the basic properties of the bar can be inferred in a reasonably robust manner despite our unfavorable location, and how the complex geometry can be used to our advantage to obtain a unique three-dimensional view of the bar. The emerging picture of the Galactic bar is also placed in the broader context of current attempts to understand how such structures form and evolve in spiral galaxies.
Next week, I'm sure we'll all be thrilled to learn that the sky is blue. Rewrite the textbooks!
There's a good article over on Space.com about this news, too!
Kneel Before Christ!
"the bar is oriented at about a 45-degree angle relative to the main plane of the galaxy"
typical science reporting. totally wrong. if that
chap had bothered to READ and understand the original article or web site, he would have
read
"It also shows that the bar is oriented at about a 45-degree angle relative to a line joining the sun and the center of the galaxy."
meaning the bar is in the galactic plane, not sticking out as the space.com article suggests
http://www.news.wisc.edu/11405.html seems a far better reference.
Just for the record, I still find it amusing that
astronomers always seem to need to report
in numbers astronomers don't even use. I know
of no single person that uses the lightyear, in
galactic astronomy we use the kilo-parsec (kpc).
The pc and lj are pretty close to each other,
3.26 between the two. So that 27,000 lightyear bar
would be 8.2 kpc. It must be the total length, since the sun is about 8 kpc from the center of
the milky way.
I end up throwing my books away every semester
Amazon.com, StarvingSE... you can usually get at least twice as much money as what the book store would give you, even AFTER shipping.
Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
Haha, sweet. For those who don't get the reference, go to http://www.venganza.org/
I teach astronomy. We've known for quite a few years that the Milky Way is a barred spiral (observations of carbon stars being the best most recent proof prior to Spitzer) and known for decades before that it might be a barred spiral. And a barred spiral IS a spiral galaxy. Cool result in any event.
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
... Actually, I've heard/read that the treatment was manual stimulation to produce orgasm.
That's not my understanding. What I've read and seen, is that the larger Andromeda Galaxy will plow through the MilkyWay, tearing both apart, with some of the galactic arms being shorn off and dismemebered and tossed into intergalactic space, with the two larger destroyed galaxies colliding again and then collapsing into a giant active galaxy, similar to M87.
Simulation HERE
What's left and flung out of the galactic collision would be of little consequence, as it would be stripped of most gas and not be able to do any second generation star formation.
Of course, that's all goign to happen in about 4 billion years, and only about 18 billion years after that the whole fucking shithouse is going to go to flinders thanks to the BIG RIP.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
No. "Sum" is not "to be", but is "I am":
:)
;)
Sum = I am
Es = You (singular) are
Est = He/she/it is
Sumus = We are
Estis = You (plural) are
Sunt = They are.
So you have:
(I think) Eggo (I am)
One person suggested that we could make up for the lack of prepositions by treating Eggo as a first conjugation verb for "to waffle" - then it would be "I think. I waffle. I am." Deep...
Also a couple people caught my incorrect notion that there are no o-ending nominative forms. I forgot that there are several in third declension. I haven't had any Latin since high school, so I'm a bit rusty.
Kneel Before Christ!
When textbook buying became centralized the quality of the materials went way down. Read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" for an account of how incestuous the relationship between publishers and textbook committees was even in the '60s. The people making the decisions are just not capable. Nor are the teachers, for the most part. Having a hard science or engineering degree is no help in getting hired as a public-school teacher in most states - an "education degree" is required, and to get one of those you have to be a rather dim herd animal or you'll be driven nuts by the inanity.
A detailed account of the incredible dumbing down of the public by the policies of state schooling can be found in The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. (full text online)
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry