Milky Way much larger than originally suspected, possibly rivaling Andromeda 

Milky Way much larger than originally suspected, possibly rivaling Andromeda

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Home » Science » Astronomy » Milky Way much larger than originally suspected, possibly rivaling Andromeda

We all think that our Milky Way galaxy is downright huge, but what if it’s actually even bigger than astronomers previously believed? As it happens, this is probably the case according to a study published earlier this year in the Astrophysical Journal. Astronomers were already aware that strange rings of stars are located in the proximity of our galaxy’s outer disk, but most of them assumed that they were not part of the galaxy per se. This is because the said rings are not aligned with the plane of the Milky Way as they can be found both above and below it, thus creating structures that resemble ripples.

New discoveries made by astronomers Yan Xu, Heidi Jo Newberg and their colleagues using data collected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey now indicate that the rings are in fact part of the Milky Way. Even though it might not look like it now, the rings were once aligned with the outer disk before a major cosmic event modified the galaxy’s structure. The event is believed to be a collision between our galaxy and another, much smaller one. The dwarf galaxy is thought to have ‘crashed’ into the center of the Milky Way, which caused the strange ripples that have been observed recently. Since distances between starts are so vast this phenomenon would not have occurred if the dwarf galaxy hit the outer ring, but due to the high concentration of starts at the center it’s possible that this explanation could be accurate.

That said, the most interesting aspect of this discovery comes from the fact that it indicates that the Milky Way is actually quite a bit larger than it was originally suspected. If we add the rippling disk to the equation, the overall size of our galaxy would be more or less equal to that of our closest neighbor, Andromeda. Interestingly enough, it actually makes a lot of sense that the two galaxies would have roughly the same size because Andromeda and the Milky Way also have roughly the same mass.

Andromeda galaxy Milky Way mass Milky Way size 2015-05-04

Tagged with: Andromeda galaxy Milky Way mass Milky Way size

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