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Feb 9, 2016

Researchers Just Discovered Hundreds of Galaxies Hidden Behind the Milky Way

Posted by in category: space

The Xeelee had to build their damned ring SOMEWHERE…

The “Xeelee Sequence” novels. by Stephen Baxter, are some of the best hard science fiction ever written. If you haven’t read them, do so. Immediately. In the meantime (even if you’ve already read the entire Xeelee series) check out this atmospheric musical composition by Oliver Lugg, inspired by the above mentioned science fiction series. It’s quite beautiful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiYxHpGmPwQ


Astronomers just uncovered hundreds of hidden galaxies a mere 250 million light years away from Earth—well within our own galactic neighborhood. But how did they stay unknown for so long? The fault isn’t with them, it’s with our own Milky Way.

The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research just completed a survey, published today in the Astronomical Journal, detailing the hundreds of newly discovered galaxies—as well as giving a much better idea of where some older suspected galaxies were hiding. Altogether, they mapped 883 galaxies lurking behind the Milky Way; you can see an artist’s representation above.

Scientists had some idea that there was something out there — but they didn’t know what. Some of the brightest clusters of galaxies were already visible, an even better clue, though, was a strange gravitational force pulling the Milky Way towards it.

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