Milky Way Map Shows That the Stars Are on the Move

The Draw of the Milky Way

Stargazing is often thought of as a hobby or something lovers decide to do on a date, but astronomers and scientists of all kinds are fascinated by the outer worldly features of space, especially in celestial bodies like the Milky Way.

The Map of the Milky Way

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that scientists have put together a map of the Milky Way, as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) for observational purposes. However, a recent press release announced some new findings, which revealed that stars within the galaxy are actually on the move. Based on the information collected, about thirty percent of these stars have moved from their original origin and into a new orbit. The team recently published the results of their findings in the Astrophysical Journal on July 29th, 2015.

The findings

Although the very idea of stars being on the move is odd, scientists based their findings on studies of the chemical compositions of stars. This information tells astronomers precisely which galaxy each star was born in, and has revealed that they move like anything else in the universe, on an orbit. However, the question of why they are doing so is still not easily answered. One explanation is that the positioning of the stars could be attributed to a star getting closer or farther away from the center of the galaxy as it ages. This “radial migration” is believed to be the result of irregularities in the Milky Way’s galactic disk, or the famous of spirals of gas and dust that we see. Nevertheless, at this moment, more data still needs to be collected to get a better understanding of the results.