Twisted Milky Way
3D mapping of the Milky Way galaxy shows that it is not flat but warped and twisted in shape.
Chinese and Australian astronomers said this spiral pattern is caused by torque, or rotational forcing, from the spinning of the Milky Way’s inner disc of stars.
The researchers, from Macquarie University in Australia and the Chinese Academy of Sciences built their map using 1339 large pulsating stars, called Cepheids, each up 100,000 times brighter than the sun.
They detailed their findings in Nature Astronomy. Â
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