Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Francis Tapon on 24/12/2008 15:56:18
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Francis Tapon asked the Naked Scientists:
The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and we are at the edge of it. The center is a bright spot of many stars.
However, when we look at the Milky Way at night, the band of stars is not only dim, but we never see the bright core.
Why is that? Is stellar dust blocking our view? Or is it too far away to see with the naked eye?
What instrument would see it and how close together are the stars there?
Francis Tapon
What do you think?
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Francis Tapon asked the Naked Scientists:
The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and we are at the edge of it. The center is a bright spot of many stars.
However, when we look at the Milky Way at night, the band of stars is not only dim, but we never see the bright core.
Why is that? Is stellar dust blocking our view? Or is it too far away to see with the naked eye?
What instrument would see it and how close together are the stars there?
Francis Tapon
What do you think?
Well, the answer is we can. We can see where strong gravitational and rotational forces are at work in the center of our galaxy. It means that the Milky Way, as according to resolution of the General Relativity Theory, that supermassive black holes are there. It's strong gravitational waves would effect the motion of the entire spiral galaxy. These (hypotnhetical black holes), would in fact be one of the main or fundamental building blocks of star system evolution.
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We can't see it with the naked eye because there are too many stars and too much gas in the way. Radio telescopes can, however, "see" it.