The Milky Way May Be 50 Percent Bigger Than Previously Thought

astroengine writes: A ring-like filament of stars wrapping around the Milky Way may actually belong to the galaxy itself, rippling above and below the relatively flat galactic plane. If so, that would expand the size of the known galaxy by 50 percent and raise intriguing questions about what caused the waves of stars. Scientists used data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to reanalyze the brightness and distance of stars at the edge of the galaxy. They found that the fringe of the disk is puckered into ridges and grooves of stars, like corrugated cardboard. "It looks to me like maybe these patterns are following the spiral structure of the Milky Way, so they may be related," said astronomer Heidi Newberg. In other Milky Way new, a Cambridge team has found nine new dwarf satellites orbiting our galaxy. Some of them are definitely dwarf galaxies, and the others may be the same, or globular clusters.

Comments

This happens from time to time.

[ArsonSmith]

As you can see from the middle of this picture of the milkyway:

http://www.collectingcandy.com...

Re:This happens from time to time.

[Tablizer]

He just happens to collect pics of "bigger bars"

Re:This happens from time to time.

[Bite The Pillow]

Conceptually, I understand that everything is on the internet. It's nice to actually see it from time to time. Especially when it's not porn.

I only know that we know nothing

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Wow, so this is how little we really know about our cosmic surroundings...
There is this big mystery about why stars further away from the galactic center orbit at the same speed as the inner stars, defying the laws of gravitation, scientists invent dark matter and other interesting theories, then it turns out we misjudge the size of our own galaxy by 50 percent?

How can we even think about stuff like that if we don't even really know how large our galaxy is?

Re:I only know that we know nothing

[ITRambo]

ELI5: This is like adding the length of your hair to your height. It's always been there, but you just decided that it's important enough to add it to your reported height. Are you taller? Nothing really changed. The Milky Way is the same size it was before. We just decided that some extra stuff that's always been there should be include due to it's observed behavior. We do not know nothing. We are always learning.

Re:I only know that we know nothing

[sexconker]

Pretty much all pop-physics is guessing and jackoffery, suited only for Morgan freeman to present it on "Through the Wormhole", accompanied by a terrible metaphor / physical demonstration presented by a celebrity "scientist" who has devoted their entire life to this "research".

Re:I only know that we know nothing

[bughunter]

We just decided that some extra stuff that's always been there should be include due to it's observed behavior.

The important part, which you seem to have missed with your hair analogy, is that recent analysis of its behavior characterizes it as part of the Milky Way, rather than just a tidally-ripped passing galaxy.

It's definitely not "hey look I can make myself 50% taller by styling my hair in a Marge Simpson bouffant."

In which way is it "bigger?"

[techno-vampire]

Do they mean that its volume is 50% more than we'd thought, or its mass? Judging from TFS, I'd guess the former, but as written, it's ambiguous.

Re:In which way is it "bigger?"

[Baloroth]

Volume. Well, maybe area, TFA isn't terribly clear (or possibly even radius, now I read it again. Size could refer any of the three. Pretty sure they mean radius, though, now I look at it closer). Not mass, though, that'd be a hell of a lot of extra mass. Basically, the problem is there is a ring of stars around the outer edge of the Milky Way. Astronomers aren't entirely sure where it comes from: if it originated from the Milky Way, and therefore is part of our galaxy properly speaking, or if it's the remnants of a dwarf galaxy that was scattered when it ran into us, or came from some other source. That would tell us a bit more about galaxy formation (or raise more questions about formation, which is almost the same thing).

Bad news

[mistr]

For the devs at Elite: Dangerous, the April update will have them working around the clock