Great Wave in Milky Way: Astronomers Discover New Star Map
- * Discovery: Scientists have discovered a massive wave traveling through the Milky Way galaxy.
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* Discovery: Scientists have discovered a massive wave traveling through the Milky Way galaxy.
* How it was found: The Gaia telescope mapped the speeds and motions of stars over nearly a dozen years, revealing a wobble in the Milky Way’s disk in 2020.This wave was then charted by tracking young, giant stars and Cepheid stars (stars with predictable brightness variations).
* What it might be caused by: A possible cause is a past collision with a smaller dwarf galaxy. However, more research is needed to confirm this.
* what it looks like: ESA officials compare the wave to “the Wave” done at a stadium – a ripple moving through a crowd.
* What it means: The wave is likely affecting the gas in the galactic disk,and young stars may “remember” information from the gas they were born from.
* Publication: The findings were published in the journal Astronomy & astrophysics on July 14th.