An international team of astronomers has mapped the movement of stars in the Milky Way, in a scientific breakthrough that could improve understanding of our galaxy.
The results of the study by a Danish, Swiss and Swedish team are the culmination of 15 years of work, including more than 1000 nights
of observing over 14,000 stars.
Lead researcher Birgitta Nordstrom, of Denmark's Niels Bohr Institute, said the data not only showed the history of stellar movement in the Milky Way but would enable scientists to look into the future of our universe.
"We now know where the stars came from and we can also predict where they will go," she said.
The research, which is published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, shows that the Milky Way galaxy had been much more turbulent and chaotic than scientists assumed.
"For the first time, the changing dynamics of the Milky Way since its birth can now be studied in detail and with a stellar sample sufficiently large to allow a sound analysis," said the European Southern Observatory, an intergovernmental European organisation for astronomical research.
The Milky Way galaxy, which holds billions of stars and is home to our solar system, also houses stars travelling more than 300km per second.
Stars travelling at such extreme speeds would be an area of further research the team would look into, Nordstrom said.
- REUTERS
Herald Feature: Space
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