
The structure of the Milky Way - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-milky.html
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krylon
Is the text in the pictures German? Or do they localize the pictures?

Either way, one thing about astronomy I find really fascinating is how people
are able to figure out so much from so little data[0]. The amount of head
scratching and the number of sleepless nights spent trying to make sense of
what little data is available must be almost as mind-bending as the stellar
bodies astronomers study.

[0] "little" compared to what we could gather if we could just hop aboard the
good old Enterprise and jet over to a couple of nearby stars, or at least take
a quick field trip to Neptune...

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lisper
Well, we _have_ taken a couple of field trips to Neptune (and a bit beyond),
but your point is well taken. It really is extraordinary how much the human
mind can encompass.

[https://futurism.com/earth-compared-to-the-
universe/](https://futurism.com/earth-compared-to-the-universe/)

[http://thirdmonk.net/lifestyle/our-sun-compared-to-the-
large...](http://thirdmonk.net/lifestyle/our-sun-compared-to-the-largest-star-
ever-discovered-video.html)

~~~
krylon
Well, yes, but we sent probes to Jupiter and Saturn that spent years exploring
them and their moons.

And I would really like to know why Uranus' axis of rotation and its magnetic
field are so weird. Wouldn't you?

~~~
lisper
Oh, I see, you want Neptune and Uranus orbiters. That's not what I thought you
meant when you said "quick field trip to Neptune."

Yeah, I'd love to have those orbiters. And a Europa lander. And a pony.

But I'll settle for getting the damn Webb launched.

~~~
krylon
Well, if we could board a shuttle and arrive at a stable orbit around Uranus
or Neptuine in less than 12 hours, we would not _need_ an orbiter, would we?

In the short term, if Webb got launched, that would be awesome. But in the
slightly-longer term, there is so much about Uranus and Neptune to discover,
and we haven't done _anything_ on that front.

Just consider how much we discovered by sending probes to Jupiter and Saturn.
Consider, how there is still to discover on Uranus and Neptune. And tell me
you don't want to go there really badly.

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inetknght
As usual, phys.org takes over your CPU.

Why is this even permitted? It should be blackholed

~~~
smhost
To their credit, site runs fine with javascript disabled.

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pseudocook
This article reminds me a lot of the book "A Fire upon the Deep" by Vernor
Vinge.

While reading this article and viewing the diagram of the Milky Way, I
wondered, does time pass more slowly from the point of view of those bodies
near the center of the galaxy, which are moving more quickly?

~~~
macintux
Of course the faster you go the slower time passes but you have to travel at
least 30% the speed of light to make a dramatic difference. See the table
here:

[http://www.emc2-explained.info/Time-Dilation-at-Low-
Speeds/](http://www.emc2-explained.info/Time-Dilation-at-Low-Speeds/)

~~~
macintux
Also: the star with the shortest known period orbiting our central black hole
travels no faster than 1% the speed of light.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S0%E2%80%93102](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S0%E2%80%93102)

~~~
mikhailfranco
Peak stellar speed observed as "nearly 3% the speed of light":

[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05825-3](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05825-3)

which appears to be rounded up from actual 2.55% value:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S2_(star)#May_2018_pericentre_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S2_\(star\)#May_2018_pericentre_passage)

