There is a huge "wave" rippling through our galaxy, and it's moving millions of stars in the process. That is, according to scientists much smarter than I.
From Live Science:
A huge 'wave' is rippling through our galaxy, pushing billions of stars in its wake, a new study reveals.
The Milky Way's galactic wave was spotted in mapping data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia space telescope, which charted the positions and movement patterns of millions of stars with high accuracy before retiring earlier this year.
So apparently this "galactic wave" is just whip-snapping through the 100,000 light-year length of the Milky Way and sending stars careening into space?
Like ripples in a pond, the wave has a very large influence: It affects stars between 30,000 and 65,000 light-years away from the galaxy's center, ESA officials said in a statement. That's a large percentage of the Milky Way, which is roughly 100,000 light-years across.
The obvious question is "Why?" Why is a mysterious wave just ripping through our galactic firmament? Where did it come from? What caused it?
The short answer, unfortunately, is, well, "nobody knows."
Astronomers still don't know what started the motion. It could have been a past collision with a smaller, dwarf galaxy that caused the large shake, ESA officials said, but more investigation is required to answer that question.
Scientists do claim that the wave bears some relation to an already-known smaller galactic feature called the "Radcliffe wave." But they don't know where that came from either! And they're not at all sure that the two waves are connected in the slightest:
The two waves may or may not be related. That's why we would like to do more research.
Astronomers telling you they're going to "do more research" to figure out the freakiest mysteries of our galaxy:
Hurry up, guys!
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