Slashdot Mirror
Milky Way Is Square(ish), According To New Map
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."
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.......
I thought it was brown, about 4 inches long, and had a swirled pattern on top of it...
Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
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.
Note that the straight areas are orthogonal to the center and then begin their rotational curve somewhat further out. This implies that the material in those arms was ejected at a greater speed than the arms closer in. It also means that those arms are younger than others since the straight areas have not had time to settle into a standard curved shape.
Pretty cool stuff, /.
Evidence of a few years ago, revealed that the Milky Way was a barred spiral, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050825.html, wonder how these two findings will mix.
I think I've seen this kind of thing before... squares and octagons instead of circles and elipses. That's right, it was in Superman comics I read as a kid. We live in the Bizarro Galaxy.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
But hey, I am not 100,000 light years away to make that kind of judgment.
I am. It is why I can never get first post.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
The Milky Way is a Nazi!
welcome our new nazi galactic overlords.
The picture in TFA is misleading -- it isn't of the Milky Way, but of M101, the same galaxy (and picture) as in the second link.
First off, the photo in the article is of the M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, not the Milky Way. Misleading, especially when you have to read all the way down to find out that tidbit and when the title includes 'New Map' we want to see the new map.
Secondly, we've known for quite some time that the Milky Way isn't a classic spiral. This Article gives a pretty interesting breakdown plus actual pictures.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
Ummmm ... isn't the Neutral Zone still in the Alpha quadrant?
That should cover the Federation, Cardassians, Romulans and Klingons at least, no? It's not like it's "somewhere else", it's just a buffer zone between people already in the Alpha Quadrant.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
No, the article is not describing a barred spiral galaxy. A barred spiral is one where there is a strong bar of stars across the galactic core (and extending well beyond it), and then "normal" spiral arms extend outward (mostly) from the two ends of the bar. The Milkyway is indeed thought to be a barred spiral.
What the article is describing is a spiral galaxy where the spiral arms themselves are straight in parts. And yes these have been observed (as shown in TFA where the Pinwheel galaxy is pictured, notice the lack of a central bar), but no it was not as far as I know theorized that the Milkyway had such a structure until now. Thus, news.
The enemies of Democracy are
To see the plot, read the paper (PDF), not the article. Figure 4 does not look like a square to me. Figure 7 has some squarish shapes drawn over the plot, but it is not highly convincing. Further, these squarish orbits appear in the inner parts of the Galaxy, not the outer shape as one might assume. Orbital shapes change with radius as different gravitational resonances dominate at different distances.
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.
I read the internet for the articles.
They already think that space is a large chunk of fabric with giant marbles on it...
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Notch will approve.
Your roaming charges must be astronomical!
Ok, you wait there while I go to snap a picture of the milky way from a distance.
First, the galaxy doesn't work like the solar system - the orbital velocity of stars doesn't depend strongly on their distance from the centre.
Second, the arms aren't believed to be persistent structures formed from individual stars but density waves that cause increased star formation where they pass. So the arms appear to be very distinct because they have more young, bright stars in them while the space between arms is more older, dimmer stars.
Pictures of our galaxy would be prohibited in Germany then, I guess.
All the cool galaxies staying way the hell away from us and all.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
Be there and be square!
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
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.
The enemies of Democracy are