ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Boy, just when you think you know your way 'round the stellar neighbor, suddenly you find out you really don't . . . because it isn't really "round"!
________________________________

First accurate 3D map of the Milky Way shows the galaxy is warped!

Feb. 5 (UPI) — Researchers in Australia and China have for the first time unveiled an accurate 3D map of the Milky Way galaxy. Their mapping efforts revealed the warped nature of the galaxy's far outer disk.

The gravitational pull of the Milky Way's center keeps the swirl of stars inside its inner regions orbiting within a relatively flat, thin plane. But among the galaxy's outer regions, the gravitational influence of the galactic core is relatively weak.

Without the strictures of strong gravity, the outer gas disk's hydrogen atoms form an S-like, warped structure — a twist.

Scientists have found similar warped shapes among the outer regions of other spiral galaxies. Astronomers think the twisted nature of the outer disk is caused by rotational forcing generated by the dense inner regions of the Milky Way.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)