We live in a "barred" galaxy.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 12:23 am

New survey of 30 million stars by the Spitzer telescope seems to confirm we live in a "barred" galaxy.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Allright, if you read this post past midnight or tomorrow, you may have to click on the '<' link at the bottom...

The problem with barred galaxies is explaining the central bar, since any stars orbiting a gravitational central core would do so at different angular speeds depending on distance to the center, so barred galaxies have been a mystery for a while. Odd thing to suddenly find out, our own galaxy happens to have a big bar... But a lucky thing if the closenes of our own galactic core will happen to help us understand the phenomenon better.

Anax · Post by **Anax** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:59 am

story now here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050825.html

kylroy · Post by **kylroy** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 11:58 pm

...it came as a big surprise to me. never would have thought that. the universe is full of surprises, that's why it's so fascinating.

arno · Post by **arno** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:36 pm

Today is a superb photo of sponge-textured like moon hyperion. Your link is pretty cool : it displays a different photo of the universe everyday !

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 2:51 pm

Yeah, I was just logging in to post about it...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html