Three-dimensional technology has, until now, had only beneficial outcomes as it adds depth perception to an image. Without getting into many details about the entertainment industry, 3D helped a great deal with the scientific community to perceive our world a little differently. This is the case of the use of 3D technology in astronomy.
Astronomers and astrophysicists at the University of Warsaw in Poland took the matter in their own hands and decided to create 3D maps of our galaxy in order to create a better insight into how the Milky Way looks like. We can now see the Milky Way in better detail. Six years have taken the Polish researchers to map out a 3D version of our Milky Way.
It’s not that we did not know how the galaxy we live in looked like, it’s just the fact that the images created until now by astronomers were based on assumptions rather than direct observations. It’s true. It is quite hard to analyze something so vast with the present technologies, especially when we are inside the galaxy.
Milky Way is not as flat as believed
Therefore, the best method of observation is by observing various celestial objects and then making calculations. This is what the researchers did. They concentrated their attention on Cepheid variable stars, which are young stellar objects that have the ability to burn brighter than our Sun in a constant sequence.
By measuring the fluctuation of the pulse, you can measure the quantity of their light and how much of it reaches our planet. This way you know the distance between these Cepheid variable stars and Earth. There are thousands of Cepheids in the sky which helped the team to create a map of the galaxy. Until now, it was believed that the Milky Way is flat. Well, not flat, but quite even.
Now, the researchers showed that the galaxy is actually bent and distorted around the edges. It quite resembles a hat with one brim down and the other up. This discovery opens many doors to further research on how the Milky Way was formed and why it has this shape.
Bo has over six years experience as a teacher, advocate and speaker. He has a B.S. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Human rights from Harvard University Graduate School.