BEIJING, Feb.5 (Xinhua) — A new study by Chinese and Australian astronomers has advanced the arena’s first correct 3-dimensional photo of the Milky Way’s warped look, displaying that the galaxy’s disc is not flat but warped and twisted far from the middle. They looked at changes posted online in the Nature Astronomy magazine on Tuesday.
Many people believed the galaxy would appear like a flat disc of stars that orbit around its important place, but the study’s researchers found that the galaxy’s far outer areas are warped and twisted, forming a three-dimensional shape.
Chen Xiaodian, the lead author of Take a Look at and a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, stated that correct distances from the Sun to the Milky Way’s outer disc components have been key to knowing what that disc appeared like.
Researchers established a sturdy galactic disc model primarily based on 1,339 variable stars, four to twenty times larger than the Sun and up to one hundred thousand times more luminous. These stars, offering excessive distance accuracy, were used as primary distance signs to broaden an intuitive and correct 3-dimensional photo of the galaxy.
From the 3D distribution map, researchers found that the brand-new derived stellar disc is warped in a progressively twisted spiral pattern with an S-form.
Further study confirmed that the stellar warp morphology is in great agreement with the galaxy’s warp. “This new finding may also assist us in recognizing the shape of the Milky Way and offer a key clue to the knowledge of how galaxies along with the Milky Way shape and evolve,” stated Deng Licia, co-author of the observation.
