NASA’s Most Powerful X-Ray Telescope Reveals Milky Way May Stretch Farther than Previously Known

NASA’s most powerful X-ray telescope reveals Milky Way may stretch farther than previously known

The Milky Way’s spiral arms stretch further than previously thought, shaking up our galaxy’s map. Scientists used rare gamma-ray bursts and powerful X-ray telescopes, including NASA’s Chandra, to precisely map distant dust clouds.

NASA's Chandra telescope reveals Milky Way's outer reaches may stretch farther than previously known

Milky Way spiral arms may stretch further into space than previously known, according to astronomers who used Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray telescope data to measure dust clouds.

The Milky Way’s arms might not look as we thought

The Milky Way's arms might be farther away than we thought, meaning our galaxy is likely larger than previously believed. Here's how they made the measurements. The post The Milky Way’s arms might not look as we thought first appeared on EarthSky.

XMM-Newton gamma-ray detection shows the Milky Way is bigger than previously thought

The Milky Way’s farthest spiral arms have long been sketched more from motion than measurement. Now three violent explosions far beyond our galaxy have helped redraw that map, showing that parts of the outer Milky Way sit farther away than astronomers thought. The work used the fading X-ray afterglow of three gamma-ray bursts, brief but extraordinarily bright blasts that erupted in distant galaxies. As that X-ray light crossed the Milky Way, som…