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The Milky Way is Not a Spiral?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-now-i-don't-believe-in-nothin' dept.

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..."

4 of 594 comments (clear)

  1. Old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  2. Known for decades by Xerxes314 · · Score: 5, Informative
    The blurb is very poorly informed. The bar structure of the Milky Way has been known for decades. Not only does a cursory search of the Harvard Astrophysics database yield a 1992 paper on the subject, but the Wikipedia article on the Milky Way clearly describes its structure as SBbc (loosely wound barred spiral).

    Next week, I'm sure we'll all be thrilled to learn that the sky is blue. Rewrite the textbooks!

  3. Re:45 Degree line? by teuben · · Score: 5, Informative

    "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.

  4. No, not the treatment for Hysteria you'd expect. by The+Penguine+Empress · · Score: 3, Informative

    ... Actually, I've heard/read that the treatment was manual stimulation to produce orgasm.