We live in a galaxy "distorted and twisted" according to the first accurate 3D map of the Milky Way



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Artist's view of the Milky Way Disc deformed and twisted.Chen Xiaodian

How & nbsp; do you measure something about what you are & nbsp; We have all seen countless images of our own Milky Way, but have you ever thought of that? None of them is real. All are artist impressions of what the astronomers of the Milky Way probably think.

We now know that the Milky Way is not flat. Astronomers at the National Astronomy Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, are published an article in Nature Astronomy this reveals that the Milky Way must be "deformed, twisted and flared" far from the center of the Milky Way.

"We generally think that spiral galaxies are fairly flat, like Andromeda, which you can easily see through a telescope." says Professor Richard de Grijs, co-author and astronomer of Macquarie University.

The galaxy of Andromeda or M31.Getty

How does the Milky Way work?

Seen from afar, the galaxy of the Milky Way would look like a thin disc of stars that revolve around its central region every few hundred million years. According to astronomers, some 300 billion stars, associated with a mass of dark matter, provide the gravitational "glue".

What causes the S-shaped chain?

What is distorted are the clouds of hydrogen in the outer galaxy. This is the change of gravitational attraction away from the inner region of the galaxy that causes the S-shaped chain of the Milky Way. "It is notoriously difficult to determine the distances between the Sun and certain parts of the Milky Way external gas disk without having a precise idea of ​​its real appearance," & nbsp; said Dr. Chen Xiaodian, NAOC researcher and lead author of the article. "However, we have recently published a new catalog of well-known variable stars, called classical Cepheids, for which distances as accurate as 3 to 5% can be determined."

RS Puppis is one of the most brilliant variable stars known to Cepheids in the Milky Way galaxy.The Hubble Space Telescope

What is a Cepheid star?

Giant yellow stars supergiant and supergiant. Cepheid stars are often called "cosmic criteria" orstandard candles& # 39 ;, and much of what astronomers know about distances in the Universe is the result of observations of these young pulsating stars. In the study, 1,339 Cepheids were studied, each up to 100,000 times brighter than the Sun.

Why are the stars of Cepheids important??

Cepheids pulsate in a predictable manner, so that changes in brightness can be used to obtain a very reliable distance. The team used "classic" Cepheids, which pulsate over days or months. Cepheids were discovered in 1912 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt & nbsp; at the Harvard College observatory after studying thousands of variable stars in the & nbsp; Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies that gravitate around the Milky Way. Edwin Hubble then used his work to determine that certain nebulae visible from the Earth were actually distant galaxies themselves. These data were then used to calculate that the further away the galaxy is, the faster it gets away from us: the Hubble constant, which describes the Expanding Universe.

For astronomers in China and Australia, data on these classic Cepheid stars were provided by the Wide Field Infrared Investigator (WISE), allowing the team to develop the first exact 3D image of our Milky Way into its most remote regions.

The NASA wide-field infrared survey explorer, or WISE, was launched in 2009. WISE sweeps the entire sky to infrared light, capturing the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images.NASA

Why is it important?

"A little to our surprise, we found that in 3D our collection of 1,339 Cepheid stars and the gas disk of the Milky Way were following each other closely.This offers new perspectives on the formation of our natal galaxy, "& nbsp;m said of Grijs. "Perhaps most importantly, in the outer regions of the Milky Way, we found that the S-star disk was deformed in a spiral pattern that was progressively twisted."

"This new morphology provides a crucial updated map for studies of stellar motion in our galaxy and the origins of the Milky Way disk." & Nbsp;m said Dr. Deng Licai, lead researcher at NAOC and co-author of the paper.

What is the cause of warp?

For 50 years, it seems that the hydrogen clouds of the Milky Way are deformed. Astronomers have observed a dozen other galaxies that had similar spiral patterns progressively twisted into their outer regions. "Combining our results with these other observations, we concluded that the deformed spiral model of the Milky Way was most likely caused by" torques, "or rotational forcing, by the massive internal disk," & nbsp; said Dr. & nbsp; Liu Chao, principal investigator and co-author of the paper.

Wishing you a clear sky and big eyes

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Artist's view of the Milky Way Disc deformed and twisted.Chen Xiaodian

How do you measure something that you are in? We have all seen countless images of our own Milky Way, but have you ever thought of that? None of them is real. All are artist impressions of what astronomers think of the Milky Way.

We now know that the Milky Way is not flat. Astronomers from the National Astronomy Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, have just published an article in Nature Astronomy this reveals that the Milky Way must be "deformed, twisted and flared" far from the center of the Milky Way.

"We generally think that spiral galaxies are rather flat, like Andromeda, which you can easily see with the help of a telescope," says Professor Richard de Grijs, co-author and astronomer of the 39, Macquarie University.

The galaxy of Andromeda or M31.Getty

How does the Milky Way work?

Seen from afar, the galaxy of the Milky Way would look like a thin disc of stars that revolve around its central region every few hundred million years. According to astronomers, some 300 billion stars, associated with a mass of dark matter, provide the gravitational "glue".

What causes the S-shaped chain?

What is distorted are the clouds of hydrogen in the outer galaxy. This is the change of gravitational attraction away from the inner region of the galaxy that causes the S-shaped chain of the Milky Way. "It is notoriously difficult to determine the distances between the Sun and parts of the Milky Way gas disk without having a clear idea of ​​its appearance," said Dr. Chen Xiaodian, NAOC researcher and lead author of the 39; section. . "However, we have recently published a new catalog of well-behaved variable stars, called classical Cepheids, for which distances as accurate as 3 to 5% can be determined."

RS Puppis is one of the brightest variable stars known to Cepheids in the Milky Way galaxy.The Hubble Space Telescope

What is a Cepheid star?

Giant yellow stars supergiant and supergiant. Cepheid stars are often referred to as "cosmic criteria" or "standard candles", and much of what astronomers know about distances in the universe is due to the observation of these young stars at pulsations. In the study, 1,339 Cepheids were studied, each up to 100,000 times brighter than the Sun.

Why are the stars of Cepheids important??

Cepheids pulsate predictably, so that changes in brightness can be used to obtain a very reliable distance. The team used "classic" Cepheids, which pulsate over days or months. The Cepheids were discovered in 1912 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt at the Harvard College Observatory after studying thousands of variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies that gravitate around the Milky Way. Edwin Hubble then used his work to determine that certain nebulae visible from the Earth were actually distant galaxies themselves. These data were then used to calculate that the further away the galaxy is, the faster it gets away from us: the Hubble constant, which describes the expanding universe.

For astronomers in China and Australia, data on these classic Cepheid stars were provided by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which allowed the team to develop the first exact 3D image of our Milky Way to its most remote regions. .

Launch in 2009 of the NASA Wide Field Infrared Survey (WISE) Explorer. WISE scans the entire sky with infrared light, capturing the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images.NASA

Why is it important?

"A little to our surprise, we found that in 3D, our collection of 1,339 Cepheid stars and the gas disk of the Milky Way closely followed one another, offering new insights into the formation of our natal galaxy. " m said of Grijs. "Perhaps most importantly, in the outer regions of the Milky Way, we have found that the S-type star disk is deformed in a spiral pattern that is progressively twisted."

"This new morphology provides a crucial update map for studies of stellar movements in our galaxy and the origins of the Milky Way disk", m said Dr. Deng Licai, lead researcher at NAOC and co-author of the paper.

What is the cause of warp?

For 50 years, it seems that the hydrogen clouds of the Milky Way are deformed. Astronomers have observed a dozen other galaxies that had similar spiral patterns progressively twisted into their outer regions. "Combining our findings with these other observations, we concluded that the curved spiral model of the Milky Way was most likely caused by" torques "or" rotating forcing "by the massive internal disk," said Dr. Liu. Chao, principal investigator and co-author. paper.

Wishing you a clear sky and big eyes

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like these:

Texas claims the third dark sky sanctuary in the United States as the fight against light pollution continues

Galaxy will enter the Milky Way, wake up in a black hole and could send the solar system flying in the space & # 39;

A mysterious "Missing Link" object discovered at the edge of the solar system by scientists using tiny telescopes

When is the next 'Super Blood Wolf Moon'? How to see another lunar eclipse before dying

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