The newfound ring as envisioned by the American-led team.
Two separate groups announced at the 201st meeting of the American Astronomical Society the discovery of portions of what appears to be a giant ring of previously unseen and surprisingly old stars surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. If an entire ring exists, theorists might have to rethink details of how the galaxy formed.
Astronomers generally think that most of the galaxy's tens of billions of stars reside within this relatively thin disk and a thicker bulge near the center. Stars are expected to be more numerous toward the center of our galaxy, thinning out towards the edges. The newly discovered ring contains about 100 to 500 million stars. So it was really a surprise to find millions of stars out by the fringe.
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