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03-13-2008, 04:38 AM
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Location: Los Angeles, which as I understand was once upon a time ago part of the United States of America
849 posts
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Ten things about the Milky Way Galaxy
Quote:
1) It’s a barred spiral.
You might know that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, perhaps the most beautiful galaxy type. You’ve seen ‘em: majestic arms sweeping out from a central hub or bulge of glowing stars. That’s us. But a lot of spirals have a weird feature: a rectangular block of stars at the center instead of a sphere, and the arms radiate away from the ends of the block. Astronomers call this block a bar, and, you guessed it: we have one.
Is fact, ours is pretty big. At 27,000 light years end-to-end, it’s beefier than most bars. Of course, space is a rough neighborhood. Who wouldn’t want a huge bar located right downtown?
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More here:
Bad Astronomy Blog » Ten things you don’t know about the Milky Way Galaxy |
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