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New Galactic Neighbor

Posted by samzenpus on from the there-goes-the-neighborhood dept.

Dan Yocum writes "The Sloan Digital Sky Survey reveals a new Milky Way neighbor: a galaxy so big we couldn't see it before. A huge but very faint structure, containing hundreds of thousands of stars spread over an area nearly 5,000 times the size of a full moon, has been discovered and mapped by astronomers of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey."

3 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How do they define a galaxy? by FalconZero · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What makes this a galaxy rather than just some random swirl in the cosmos?
    If I remember my Physics elective from uni, Galaxies are internally gravitationally bounded, that is the entire 'clump' of things is held rougly in equalibrium with gravity providing the contracting forces.
    does this galaxy have a black hole to call its own in the middle?
    The jury is out on the existance of supermassive holes at all galactic centers (partly due to obvious impossibility of direct detection).
    What happens if a black hole eats another black hole?
    Black hole collisions are theoretically possible, and has been simulated on a Cray (pretty pictures included).
    --
    Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
  2. Appearance from outside by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If you've ever wondered what it was like to live on a planet in one of those exotic galaxy-eating-galaxies that we've seen in various images from Hubble and others --

    Well, now we know. Little did we know that we knew all along.

    --
    And the brethren went away edified.
  3. Re:Star Question by helioquake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's the humidity inside your room? It's not completely dry, right? So, why don't you see a white patchy cloud in your room? Not even in summers?

    Why?

    Well, it has to do with the density. Even if there is a galaxy nearby, if the content of a galaxy is sparcely populated by ordinary stars (and they are, I RTFA), you ain't gonna see them. Just like you don't see "humidity" (water molecules) in your room.