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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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Just be careful of the words "throw away", "give away" and "books" in Henico County, VA
"Mine, mine! Geroff! Mine!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"the bar is oriented at about a 45-degree angle relative to the main plane of the galaxy"
I'm pretty sure that this means "Do not enter" according to international standards.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Right, and the next thing you'll tell me is that the Earth isn't flat! And that the sun doesn't revolve around the earth. Blasphemers!
I always knew that the milky way was a bar, and that it is filled with nougat.
The fact the milky way is a normal spiral is a fundamental tenet of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and this new evidenc is just a theory. I demand that people continue to teach my older (wrong) alternative theory.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
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!
> Well the actual problem is people on both sides. First you have one group who believes that science is actual truth, and that all the problems in the world can be fixed with science.
I suspect that most scientists actually believe that science is an attempt to get at the truth, and will likely never be complete. And that only some problems can be fixed with science.
> Religion on the other hand is more of a combined study where you put together many different studies and look at the truth as a whole
Actually, religion looks at mythology and people's opinions about theology, morals, the proper social order, and the existence of a lot of unevidenced supernatural stuff.
> The main difference is science is trying to constantly disprove itself while religion is trying to prove itself. They are not opposing forces just different methods of trying to find truth.
Religion, most often, merely attempts to maintain traditional beliefs and values. Those who are "trying to find truth" usually get kicked out of the club, because truth is rarely deferential to traditional beliefs.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
What a load of blather. Science is simply a way of attempting to explain observed data and make predictions upon it. It isn't a religion any more than hammers or toothpicks are religion. Maybe some misguided souls who likely don't understand science think of it in that fashion, but science is a methodology, a means of determing provisional explanations. Have you ever heard of a religion that says "to the best evidence we have to date is explained by , but we await more data"?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Cogito Eggo Sum, I think therefore I am a waffle
No, if I'm not mistaken, it would be "I think I am a waffle." "Ergo", the word you replaced, is what means "therefore".
Of course, "Eggo" doesn't sound like a nominative noun to a Latin speaker - it could be something like "Eggus" or whatnot, for which "Eggo" would be the ablative and dative singular. If that were the case, and "Eggus" meant "waffle", I believe it could be translated as "I think I am for the waffle", "I think I am to the waffle", "I think I am by means of the waffle", or several other things (I never really fully got the ablative).
Kneel Before Christ!
If the submitter had actually read the article....no, I guess that's too much to ask.
Quote FTA "The bar is made of relatively old and red stars, the survey shows. It is about 27,000 light-years long, or roughly 7,000 light-years longer than previously thought." (emphasis mine)
In other words, the news isn't that they just discovered the Milky War is a bared spiral galaxy, the news is that the Milky Way's bar is 7,000 light-years longer than scientists thought.