Origins Of Galactic Centre Unearthed

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Origins of the galactic centre unearthed
Friday, 15 September 2006Jacqui Hayes
Cosmos Online

SYDNEY, 15 September 2006: The centre of our home galaxy, the Milky Way,
formed independently of the region where Earth is located, astronomer Manuela
Zoccali from the Universidad Catolica de Chile has revealed for the first time
in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Zoccali used the chemical composition of stars in different regions of the
Milky Way to investigate their formation. She has compared her study of our
galaxy to heredity studies using genetics. ?We have clearly established a
?genetic difference? between stars in the disc and the bulge of our galaxy,? she
said.
Although there is clearly no genetic material in stars, the chemicals in the
stars can identify similarities between groups of stars and is therefore likened
to a genetic link.

The Earth is located in the outer reaches of our galaxy, on a thin disc,
amidst pinwheel-shaped arms of gas, dust and stars. At the centre of this disc
is a huge, tightly packed group of stars called the galactic bulge, named for
the way it bulges out from the disc.

The centre of our galaxy has never been directly observed, due to the large
number of stars obscuring the view, however most astronomers believe that the
galactic bulge harbours a super-massive black hole.



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