So I read an interesting articles about a new structure that astronomers found in our solar system, called "Galactic Bones". They're long straight filaments of dust and gas that stretch out through the spiral arms of galaxies; observed at infrared wavelengths of light. The picture above is the bone named after the dust cloud nicknamed "Nessie." More specifically, this bone is part of the Scutum-Centaurus arm. This bone was observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope spans 300 light-years (length) by 1-2 light-years (wide).
What makes Nessie interesting is that it's high density sets if apart from its surroundings suggests that its a "spine-like feature that runs down the center of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm of the Milky Way." Nessie can halp us mao the full skeleton of the Milky Way. From my understanding, it is thought as impossible to have an overhead view of the Milky Way because we pretty much live "in" the plane - as if we are flatlanders. But the sun's tiny distance above the plane helps with a 3D perspective of the the galaxy. Here's the thought experiment:
What makes Nessie interesting is that it's high density sets if apart from its surroundings suggests that its a "spine-like feature that runs down the center of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm of the Milky Way." Nessie can halp us mao the full skeleton of the Milky Way. From my understanding, it is thought as impossible to have an overhead view of the Milky Way because we pretty much live "in" the plane - as if we are flatlanders. But the sun's tiny distance above the plane helps with a 3D perspective of the the galaxy. Here's the thought experiment:
(Straight from the Article)
Carry out the following thought experiment. Draw a rough plan of a spiral galaxy on a piece of paper. Position a vantage point a tiny distance (a few hundredths of an inch) above that piece of paper, about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the galaxy. Now give the observer at that vantage point super-sharp eyesight and ask if the observer can separate the spiral arm features you drew, as they observe them. They can–if and only if the spiral you drew has very narrow features defining its arms. If the observer were exactly in the piece of paper (living in Flatland), separating the arms would be impossible, regardless of their width. We are, like your observer, are at a tiny, tiny, elevation off of a spiral galaxy, and our visiion is good enough to separate very skinny arm-like features.
Here are the links for this subject:
http://milkywaybones.org/https://www.authorea.com/users/23/articles/249/_show_article#fig__colon__topview
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/01/astronomers-discover-new-structure-at-milky-way-core-4.html
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