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Milky Way Is Square(ish), According To New Map

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the ishy-science dept.

KentuckyFC writes "The structure of the Milky Way is notoriously difficult to work out because we see our galaxy edge on. That means nearer clouds and stars are superimposed on more distant ones and telling them apart is hard. However, astronomers have unveiled a new map based on velocity measurements made on 870 clouds of carbon monosulphide. This has revealed a number of new features of the Milky Way including a previously unknown spiral arm, some 30,000 light years from the galactic core. But the most surprising finding is that some of our galaxy's spiral arms are straight rather than curved, giving the Milky Way a distinctly square look. That's not quite as outrageous as it sounds. Astronomers know of a number of other galaxies with straight arms, such as the pinwheel galaxy M101. So ours probably looks something like this."

8 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Ohhhhhhhhhh by scosco62 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    God: Who is Globular Cluster which includes HE 1523? Kids: MilkyWay SquarePants! God: Enormous and luminous and massive is he! Kids: MilkyWay SquarePants! God: If astronomical nonsense be something you wish, Kids: MilkyWay SquarePants! God: Then call in SETI and tune in the dish! I'm really really sorry about this.......

    1. Re:Ohhhhhhhhhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, I've got to say one thing: at least the mods were smart enough to not recognize this as Funny.

      I only wish I was smart enough to figure out why they did give it an Insightful mod. Doesn't that directly contradict the poll results about how the average Slashdotter is smarter than average?

      Go figger.

  2. Milky Way by Theoboley · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I thought it was brown, about 4 inches long, and had a swirled pattern on top of it...

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    Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
  3. Misleading article by ral · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The article has a picture of a galaxy with no caption. A casual reader will assume the picture is of our own galaxy, but it is actually a picture of M101.

  4. Re:No, they have it wrong... by jandrese · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But if the Galaxy if flat and the Earth is in the Galaxy, that means the Flat Earth Society was right all along!

    Insane theories 1, regular theories like a million.

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    I read the internet for the articles.
  5. Minecraft Compatible by Odonian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Notch will approve.

  6. Re:Quickly ejected material by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    BadAnalogyGuy long ago morphed into simply BadPostGuy.

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    The enemies of Democracy are
  7. Re:No, they have it wrong... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Um, the description of "squarish", much like the description "spiral", is referring to the 2D face-on structure. Most people would be comfortable describing something 50 times larger in two dimensions than in the 3rd as flat, and it doesn't matter which way is "up" (though the galactic axis does give a valid reference for "north" and "south). A flat disk is a flat disk regardless of its orientation. Also if you require everything to line up exactly then essentially nothing is flat -- not Kansas and not your table top. On the scale of the galaxy, and in a context where we're calling the 2D shape "square", "flat" is an apt enough description.

    "Cube", however, is just plain fucking wrong. Pointless pedantry is just a way for a weak-minded person to try to sound smart by being literal when they can't sound smart by knowing what they're talking about. And you still failed at that.

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    The enemies of Democracy are