Milky Way much larger & bulkier than ever thought--

For decades, astronomers thought our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. But reports suggest, not anymore. The Milky Way is considerably larger, bulkier and spinning faster than astronomers once thought, Andromeda's equal. ``Previously we thought Andromeda was dominant, and that we were the little sister of Andromeda,'' ``But now it's more like we're fraternal twins.''

Scientists mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that it's 15 percent larger in breadth. More important, it's denser, with 50 percent more mass, which is like weight. That's not necessarily good news. A bigger Milky Way means that it could be crashing violently into the neighboring Andromeda galaxy sooner than predicted though still billions of years from now. That speed at which Milky Way spins is about 568,000 miles per hour (914,000 kilometers per hour) ,faster than the 492,000 mph (792,000 kph) that scientists had been using for decades. That's about a 15 percent jump in spiral speed. (Source: TOI & AP) The results suggest the Milky Way is roughly the same size as Andromeda, the largest galaxy in our local group.

What is more, it is moving 15 per cent faster than earlier predictions. The greater mass means that future collisions with nearby galaxies could happen sooner than thought. But don't worry that's at 2 to 3 billion years away, Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, US, said. There are may be many universes and the energy forces that are much more magnanimous than the human mind can think of. What I knew about the solar system during the days of my early education and what I believe today are at different poles of understanding. This shows that with the advancement in technology and science, we are merely in the initial stages of learning and updating knowledge, but definitely not at the end!!!

Posted By:Jaspreet