Milky Way

The Milky Way is considerably larger, bulkier and spinning faster than astronomers thought, it has been revealed.

For decades, stargazers thought when it came to the major neighbouring galaxies, our Milky Way - home to Earth - was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda, but not anymore. Scientists mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that it is 15% larger in breadth. More important, it is denser, with 50% more mass, which is like weight.

The new findings were presented at the American Astronomical Society’s convention in Long Beach, California.

Info from The Conscious Mind.


By contrast there is little doubt that Mars Bars are getting smaller...

Huge gas cloud will hit Milky Way

A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is racing towards a collision with the Milky Way, astronomers have announced. Smith's Cloud, as it is known, may set off spectacular fireworks when it smacks into our galaxy. It contains enough hydrogen to make a million stars like the Sun, say experts, and its leading edge is already hitting gas from our galaxy. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it – it will be 20-40 million years for the collision happens.
When it does hit, the cloud could indeed set off a new burst of star formation in the Milky Way. Details of the work, by a team at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, were unveiled at the 211th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.