Milky Way has a gassy limb

  • 06/05/2004

  • Hindu (New Delhi)

A 50-year-old map of the Milky Way will have to be redrawn. Astronomers have discovered that this spiral galaxy has a huge, outflung arm. New Scientist reports that the gassy limb comprises an arc of hydrogen 77,000 light years long and several thousand light years long and several thousand light years thick.