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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.

3 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Monty python by Ironweaver · · Score: 0, Redundant

    "It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick, But out by us it's just three thousand light years wide"

  2. Well, isn't that great... by had3l · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Something else that is now OVER 9000!!!!!111

  3. Vegeta! by SaidinUnleashed · · Score: 0, Redundant

    What does the spreadsheet say about the glaxy's thickness?

    --
    Shiny. Let's be bad guys.