Milky Way Gets a Little Bigger

Uncategorized January 6, 2009

There’s a New York Times Science article from yesterday reporting on recent measurements indicating that the Milky Way, our home galaxy is bigger than previously thought. We now qualify as a peer of the Andromeda galaxy. The critical measurement was how fast we revolve around the galactic center. The faster we’re going, the more massive our galaxy must be to hold us in. Recent measurements reported at the American Astronomical Society meeting (still in progress!) indicate we’re moving quite a bit faster than previously thought.

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