Astronomers Find the Edge of the Milky Way (skyandtelescope.org)

submitted 2 days ago by CobraCommander@quokk.au to c/world@quokk.au

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/1066124

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[-] Bananskal@nord.pub 2 points 2 days ago

Like surfers carried to the shore, these stars were caught in the spiral waves of our swirling galaxy, which carried them outward and dumped them in the outer regions of the Milky Way. Naturally, it takes longer for them to travel farther, so the outermost stars are also the oldest.

Funny, that's not what the graph is showing, by my interpretation. To me or looks like the innermost stars are the oldest. Then the mid stars are the youngest, then outermost are older again but not the oldest.

[-] tb_@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

so the outermost stars are also the oldest.

I don't think that line necessarily refers to anything going on in the core, but rather "of stars on the outside, the furthest ones are the oldest".

[-] Bananskal@nord.pub 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm not sure I follow you here, but just to be sure, I'm talking about this image here:

Was that also what you were looking at?

[-] tb_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah. And the oldest stars overall are indeed in the galactic centre.

But the specific bit you quoted I read as "of the old stars on the outside, the outermost are the oldest".

[-] Bananskal@nord.pub 2 points 1 day ago

Ah okay, I get you. Reading it back again it does indeed seem to be that this is what they mean.

Thanks. 😁

this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026

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