X marks the galaxy
Postmedia Network
First posted: Thursday, July 21, 2016 03:36 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 21, 2016 03:54 PM EDT
A Toronto astronomer's tweet has led to the discovery of a strange X shape in the middle of our galaxy.
The X-shaped cluster of stars is not an unusual feature at the centre of galaxies, but a recent photo sent out on social media is the first proof that one exists within our own Milky Way.
Toronto astronomer Dustin Lang, of Dunlap Institute of the University of Toronto, first posted the photo in 2015 -- one of several galactic images he shared on social media over the years of data he'd collected. An X-shaped bulge could be seen within the photo. That piqued the interest of Melissa Ness, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.
Together, the pair realized what they were looking at.
"There was controversy about whether the X-shaped structure existed," Lang told Science Daily. "But our paper gives a good view of the core of our own galaxy. I think it has provided pretty good evidence for the existence of the X-shaped structure."
Data taken from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission shows an X shape in the middle of the Milky Way. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/D.Lang)
X marks the galaxy | Weird | News | Toronto Sun
Postmedia Network
First posted: Thursday, July 21, 2016 03:36 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 21, 2016 03:54 PM EDT
A Toronto astronomer's tweet has led to the discovery of a strange X shape in the middle of our galaxy.
The X-shaped cluster of stars is not an unusual feature at the centre of galaxies, but a recent photo sent out on social media is the first proof that one exists within our own Milky Way.
Toronto astronomer Dustin Lang, of Dunlap Institute of the University of Toronto, first posted the photo in 2015 -- one of several galactic images he shared on social media over the years of data he'd collected. An X-shaped bulge could be seen within the photo. That piqued the interest of Melissa Ness, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.
Together, the pair realized what they were looking at.
"There was controversy about whether the X-shaped structure existed," Lang told Science Daily. "But our paper gives a good view of the core of our own galaxy. I think it has provided pretty good evidence for the existence of the X-shaped structure."
Data taken from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission shows an X shape in the middle of the Milky Way. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/D.Lang)
X marks the galaxy | Weird | News | Toronto Sun
