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Milky Way Is Twice the Size We Thought

Posted by kdawson on from the everything-you-know-is-wrong dept.

Peter writes to tell us about a research group at the University of Sydney in Australia, who in the middle of some calculation wanted to check the numbers everybody uses for the thickness of our galaxy at the core. Using data available freely on the Internet and analyzing it in a spreadsheet, they discovered in a matter of hours that the Milky Way is 12,000 light years thick, vs. the 6,000 that had been the consensus number for some time.

6 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. first by Null+Perception · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    first

    --
    Great new book on Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
    1. Re:first by Trouvist · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      second

  2. Re:Haha by Distortions · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Oops, didn't mean to post as Anonymous Coward.

    --
    Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
  3. Third by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Oh yeah!

  4. Re:Haha by Highrespectable · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Really interesting this story! http://www.spymac.com/details/?2343566

  5. Re:The problem with Wikipedia by darkvizier · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Maybe it would be more balanced if folks like yourself participated in the editing as well?