Astronomers Discover Huge Gaseous Wave Holding Milky Way's Newest Stars (theguardian.com) 34
Astronomers have discovered a gigantic, undulating wave of dust and gas where newborn stars are forged over a 50 million billion mile stretch of the Milky Way. The Guardian reports: The gaseous structure, which holds more mass than 3 million suns, runs directly behind our solar system as viewed from the heart of the galaxy, but has eluded observation until now. The spectacular string of stellar nurseries forms the largest known wave in the Milky Way and was announced, appropriately, at a scientific conference a stone's throw from the surf mecca of Waikiki beach in Hawaii.
Measurements of the wave show that it stretches over 9,000 light years and makes up what is known as the "local arm" of the Milky Way. Looking down on the flat disc of the galaxy, the wave appears as a straight line about 400 light years wide. But from the side, it rises and falls 500 light years above and below the plane of the galaxy. For comparison, the width of the solar system is about half a light day -- the distance light travels in 12 hours. The discovery has thrown up a raft of questions, not least around how the wave formed. One idea is that a much smaller galaxy clattered into that part of the Milky Way in the far-flung past, setting off ripples that spread like those from a stone tossed into a pond. A more exotic hypothesis sees a role for the mysterious dark matter that lurks unseen around galaxies. The astronomers published their findings in the journal Nature.
Measurements of the wave show that it stretches over 9,000 light years and makes up what is known as the "local arm" of the Milky Way. Looking down on the flat disc of the galaxy, the wave appears as a straight line about 400 light years wide. But from the side, it rises and falls 500 light years above and below the plane of the galaxy. For comparison, the width of the solar system is about half a light day -- the distance light travels in 12 hours. The discovery has thrown up a raft of questions, not least around how the wave formed. One idea is that a much smaller galaxy clattered into that part of the Milky Way in the far-flung past, setting off ripples that spread like those from a stone tossed into a pond. A more exotic hypothesis sees a role for the mysterious dark matter that lurks unseen around galaxies. The astronomers published their findings in the journal Nature.
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Farts are just burps that used Apple Maps to find their way out.
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Farts are just burps that used Apple Maps to find their way out.
... and farts are Brexiteers that finally found the exit by sheer dumb luck.
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Hmm how could we not see this? (Score:1)
Because we didn't have SPACE FORCE (Score:1)
But now that we've got Space Force, we can assess if this gaseous anomaly poses a threat, and respond with appropriate force (why else would it be in the name?).
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Astrophysicist Rebecca Smethurst explains in her latest video how the discovery was made and has an interview with the team members behind it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
An interesting watch.
Galactic farts ! (Score:1)
Still so many wonders to behold (Score:2)
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Wow! kind of poetic, kind of beautiful, but sadly that's all this line of thinking will likely produce.
We certainly can dream, and dream big! However, the current models of the cosmos have but one tool in the tool box, and that's gravity. So put another way, when all you have as a solution is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail. That's how we've come to need place-holders such as: Dark matter, Dark energy, and something un-related = magnetic re-connection, etc., etc.
I just think we need to ke
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The thing is, there is no "fact", there's only theories that pass all the tests we can make. I have a theory that when I take a step I won't fall through the floor. And I have a theory that I've done so before. (Memories are not totally reliable.)
Saying that something is a "fact" is just saying you aren't willing to look at the reasons why it might not be true. And that says more about you than about reality.
The problem is that not all theories are equally tested. So it's convenient to label those that
Re:Still so many wonders to behold (Score:4, Interesting)
Uh, matter doesn't emit photons and if dark matter exists then it is most likely undiscovered types of subatomic particles and it's unlikely to be moving faster than we can perceive because it has mass, meaning it's sublight.
Also Debussy is for the sea. Holst is more apt for the skies.
I agree and Holst the planets is still one of my favourite compositions but some older ones from the time of Hayden are also well worth the listen IMO. I get it that dark matter is a mathematical place holder nothing more and nothing less. If indeed nothing since the initial expansion of the big bang can move faster than C then my speculation as to how it might is meaningless. No arguments from me about relativity or the nature of light which inspired Albert in the first place.
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Then check out Sir William Herschel.
Not only did he build the largest telescopes of his time, or catalogued the objects he observed in the sky, but he also discovered infra-red!
He went to England as a musician and composer, but all this astronomy moonlighting made him famous.
He wrote many symphonies
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What do you mean "matter doesn't emit photons"? Don't you consider electrons to be matter? Matter (i.e. electrons) is the only thing that normally emits photons. Some forms of particle decay also emit photons, but that's also matter.
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If you said they were instances of energy, I'd agree with you. But even so I'd be unhappy with the wall you seem to be trying to build between mass and energy. It is not consistent with experiments. Neither quantum physics nor relativity support it.
As for mass.... photons have a mass that depends on their frequency (i.e. energy) as specified by Einstein's most famous equation. You can say their rest mass is zero, but since you can't stop a photon, this is meaningless.
First! (Score:2)
Uranus reference, that is.
Sorry, it was me. (Score:3)
I ate too many political speeches.
OY (Score:2)
Someone alert the Nobel Committee!!! I think we have this year's winner for Non Sequitur Analogy Stretching. Or possibly the Leonard Pinth-Garnell Award for Science Writing.
You could have just said 50 quadrillion (Score:2)
Re: You could have just said 50 quadrillion (Score:1)
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Or 8500 light years, to use a meaningful unit for this scale.
How far away? (Score:2)
When Galactus was asked for comment... (Score:2)
Isn't that how we got Star Trek Generations? (Score:1)
Wasn't this what Kirk and Picard were riding in Generations? Can we get Woopi Goldberg to chime in on this?
Gigantic, undulating wave of dust and gas (Score:2)
So no need to invoke “dark matter” to account for the shape of galaxies. Ordinary electro/magentic effects would do.
Magnetic Ropes Surround 'Whale Galaxy' [space.com]