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A Stellar Discovery on the Milky Way's Far Side
Five remarkable stars on the other side of our galaxy promise new insight into the outer reaches of our home turf
By Dr. Ken Croswell
A single Hubble Space Telescope image can capture scores of distant galaxies, but the one galaxy we'll never see from the outside is our own. As a result, no one knows the Milky Way's exact size and shape. It took more than a century after the discovery of the first spiral in space before astronomers established that our galaxy is a spiral, too, and more years elapsed before they deduced that we inhabit a barred spiral—a type whose bright central region is elongated. Now, for the first time, observers have detected five stars on the far side of the galaxy that serve as outstanding yardsticks, a feat which will divulge secrets about the Milky Way's terra incognita. "It's a beautiful piece of classic astronomy," says Leo Blitz, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the discovery.
Link (includes an excellent map of the Milky Way): Scientific American
Five remarkable stars on the other side of our galaxy promise new insight into the outer reaches of our home turf
By Dr. Ken Croswell
A single Hubble Space Telescope image can capture scores of distant galaxies, but the one galaxy we'll never see from the outside is our own. As a result, no one knows the Milky Way's exact size and shape. It took more than a century after the discovery of the first spiral in space before astronomers established that our galaxy is a spiral, too, and more years elapsed before they deduced that we inhabit a barred spiral—a type whose bright central region is elongated. Now, for the first time, observers have detected five stars on the far side of the galaxy that serve as outstanding yardsticks, a feat which will divulge secrets about the Milky Way's terra incognita. "It's a beautiful piece of classic astronomy," says Leo Blitz, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the discovery.
Link (includes an excellent map of the Milky Way): Scientific American