"Milky Way May Be Much Larger Than Previously Estimated"

[SPCTRE]

The Corrugated Galaxy—Milky Way May Be Much Larger Than Previously Estimated

Findings Led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Researchers Published in the Astrophysical Journal

The Milky Way galaxy is at least 50 percent larger than is commonly estimated, according to new findings that reveal that the galactic disk is contoured into several concentric ripples. The research, conducted by an international team led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor Heidi Jo Newberg, revisits astronomical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey which, in 2002, established the presence of a bulging ring of stars beyond the known plane of the Milky Way.

[...]

Importantly, the findings show that the features previously identified as rings are actually part of the galactic disk, extending the known width of the Milky Way from 100,000 light years across to 150,000 light years, said Yan Xu, a scientist at the National Astronomical Observatories of China (which is part of the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing), former visiting scientist at Rensselaer, and lead author of the paper.

 

[137th Gebirg]

This map puts us a lot closer to the center than other maps I recall seeing in the past. Always thought we were farther out.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, we're the same distance from the center, but if these findings are right, then the edge is farther away from us than we thought.

 

[Skellington]

It seems to me that this should have been observed in other "spiral" galaxies such as Andromeda or M33 by now, unless ours is somewhat less typical than we thought.

 

[137th Gebirg]

The article does speculate that the ripples may have been caused by a "Drawf Galaxy" careening through ours, much like a pebble hitting water. I suspect that we might see the same phenomenon in a small handful of other galaxies, but it may be a considerably rare occurrence and difficult to locate at such distances.

 

[RoJoHen]

This map puts us a lot closer to the center than other maps I recall seeing in the past. Always thought we were farther out.

We're not closer. There's just more of the galaxy even farther out than we previously knew about. That's pretty much the point of the article.

 

[Metryq]

This ring pattern is not entirely unexpected:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbULacChCuY[/yt]​