Milky Way Galaxy Has Mirror-Like Symmetry

[n2doc]

By Ron Cowen, Science News May 21, 2011 | 7:00 am | Categories: Space


A new study suggests the Milky Way doesn’t need a makeover: It’s already just about perfect.

Astronomers base that assertion on their discovery of a vast section of a spiral, star-forming arm at the Milky Way’s outskirts. The finding suggests that the galaxy is a rare beauty with an uncommon symmetry — one half of the Milky Way is essentially the mirror image of the other half.
Thomas Dame and Patrick Thaddeus of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., say the structure they’ve discovered is most likely the outer extension of the Scutum-Centaurus arm from the inner galaxy. The finding suggests that Scutum-Centaurus wraps all the way around the Milky Way, making it a symmetric counterpart to the galaxy’s other major star-forming arm, Perseus.

The two arms appear to extend from opposite ends of the galaxy’s central, bar-shaped cluster of stars, each winding around the galaxy, the researchers note in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/milky-way-symmetry/

[Kokonoe]

1. We need to invade the outer stars, before the inner stars invade us.

:sarcasm:

But seriously it is the light matching gravity.

The Earth & Moon was formed by a two planet symmetry that did not work out 4 billion years ago.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Norma is blocking my view of the galactic center.

:mad:

[drokhole]

3. Gotta love the Golden Ratio...

...and the fractal geometry of Nature!

[Ready4Change]

4. Call me a gear head. It reminds me of an engine.

Like a turbine. Burning galactic dust into star formation, waves of nuclear fire rippling outwards, followed by relative quiet for 100 million years until the next wave comes?