Milky Way 50% Bigger Than Previously Thought, Study

According to a new study, it is being discovered that the Milky Way is at least 50 per cent bigger than previously estimated. New findings have revealed that the galaxy is contoured into many concentric ripples.

Professor Heidi Jo Newberg of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute led the team of researchers who studied astronomical data obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

"In essence, what we found is that the disk of the Milky Way isn't just a disk of stars in a flat plane - it's corrugated," said Heidi Newberg, professor of physics, applied physics and astronomy in the Rensselaer School of Science.

"As it radiates outward from the Sun, we see at least four ripples in the disk of the Milky Way. While we can only look at part of the galaxy with this data, we assume that this pattern is going to be found throughout the disk," Newburg said.

Based on the study, many of the previous findings which were then identified as rings are in essence part of the galactic disc. This means width of the Milky way is bigger than previously thought extending it from 100,000 to 150,000 light years

Lead author of the paper and scientist at the National Astronomical Observatories of China, Yan Xu said, "Going into the research, astronomers had observed that the number of Milky Way stars diminishes rapidly about 50,000 light years from the centre of the galaxy, and then a ring of stars appears at about 60,000 light years from the centre."

"What we see now is that this apparent ring is actually a ripple in the disk. And it may well be that there are more ripples further out which we have not yet seen," Xu added.