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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."

2 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Bubble or wobble? by filament · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Is this a distinct phenomenon from the warp in the milky way reported recently? Or just a different interpretation of the same thing? The warp would also explain the asymmetry of the galaxy as described in the article. They may be separate, but it is interesting that they were reported in the same week.

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  2. back of the envelope by mdmarkus · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If it's 5000 times the size of the moon, a back of the envelope calculation (square root 5000 times the .5 degree arc for the moon) means it's something like 35 degrees across.