Milky Way a Swifter Spinner, More Massive

Milky Way a Swifter Spinner, More Massive

www.nrao.edu

Fasten your seat belts -- we're faster, heavier, and more likely to collide than we thought. Astronomers making high-precision measurements of the Milky Way say our home Galaxy is rotating about 100,000 miles per hour faster than previously understood.

That increase in speed, said Mark Reid, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, increases the Milky Way's mass by 50 percent, bringing it even with the Andromeda Galaxy. "No longer will we think of the Milky Way as the little sister of the Andromeda Galaxy in our Local Group family."
Milky Way
Artist's Conception of our Milky Way Galaxy:
Blue, green dots indicate distance measurements.
CREDIT: Robert Hurt, IPAC; Mark Reid, CfA, NRAO/AUI/NSF

JPEG graphic with scale marks on sides

PostScript graphic with scale marks on sides

The larger mass, in turn, means a greater gravitational pull that increases the likelihood of collisions with the Andromeda galaxy or smaller nearby galaxies.

(visit the link for the full news article)

well, this is a pretty strange indeed. I was pretty sure that we are a bit closer with our knowledge of at least major facts about the galactic we are leaving in.

of course this is not a fearmongering thread (the collision with another galactic won't happen next week) but I am now concerned how all the other info (about the lack of probability to huge meteor strike in Earth) we can be sure about.

and I searched the forum and did not found that article posted. if I am wrong just close it please.

www.nrao.edu
(visit the link for the full news article)

As far as we know the milky way is just as much a mystery to modern scientists, as the world being round was to all those in the past.

Without going outside our galaxy, how do we even know how big it really is? Do we even know if it looks like scientists claim? Heck how can they calculate the mass of our galaxy, when they see distant planets in telescopes (just dots among more dots tbh) they have no real evidence of what the planets are composed off, let alone its real size beyond an estimate.

Originally posted by Saf85
Heck how can they calculate the mass of our galaxy, when they see distant planets in telescopes (just dots among more dots tbh) they have no real evidence of what the planets are composed off, let alone its real size beyond an estimate.

I'm no expert, but when they observe stars they are passed thru many light filters. Every known chemical gives off different colors. Think of it when you're watching fireworks. Every pretty color you see is created by a different checmical, sodium, magnesium, sulfur and all those chemicals have a specific atomic weight.

So when certain spectrums of light are detected and depending on how intense they register we can get a pretty good idea what it's composed of. They can also tell approx how much an object weighs by it's gravitational pull on other bodies around it. Thats also how they find planets orbiting stars. They observe small changes in gravitational pull. The heavier the object the greater the pull on gravity.




[edit on 5-1-2009 by zarlaan]

If the galaxy is spinning faster than we thought, wouldn't this throw off the December 21, 2012 alignment forecast?

reply to post by Saf85


well, I am not such an ignorant. I've been reading quite a lot of books about our solar system (best I got lately is Brian Bryson's "a shot story of nearly everything").
mu question was more sarcastic. it is why the hell thay are trying to say that for example there is no way for yellowstone to erupt, or there are no big objects on the collision with earth instead of confirm that they have no idea of such.

reply to post by czacza


its my view that If we were around long enough , around 15 billion years,
we would have enough records & measurements to prove that the Milky Way Galaxy is continuing to grow, or else is creating more stars & mass from the dark matter' which surrounds our galaxy.

Perhaps in another 15 billion years , the Milky Way will expand to become the 'observable universe' we are in ...
as all the other far flung galaxies will have retreated past the 14 billion year visual boundary


thanks

[edit on 6-1-2009 by St Udio]