No, most astronomers also knew that the Milky Way was bent, just almost all the illustrations, this fact is lowered for simplicity or in the absence of accurate data. However, American scientists from the University of Virgin created a new visualization reflecting the real state of affairs. According to the Phys.org portal, this work is part of a large-scale study "Slianovsky Digital Heavenly Review" (SDSS). The visualization was first shown in the framework of the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
The presence of bending in the plane of spiral galaxies has been found for a long time - simultaneously with the first detailed observations of such objects. The exact causes of such waves are not reliably known. The most logical looks model in which they cause the gravitational effect of another galaxy, which was near at a relatively short distance. Such interaction passes, the galaxies are removed from each other or become satellites, and the stars inside them are moving on the changed trajectories for a long time. The Milky Way was met with such a perturbator of calm about three billion years ago - quite recently on cosmological standards.
To see such a bend in his galaxy, scientists had to work pretty. Two data sets were used at once: from the Apogee Experiment Apochi-Point Observatory in New Mexico (USA) and the results of the European orbital telescope GAIA. An impressive visualization of the bending galaxy is not just a beautiful video. This is a direct product of the three-dimensional cartography of the Milky Way, the most complicated work to determine the exact position in the space of hundreds of thousands of stars.
As part of the Apogee, a telescope with a 2.5-meter mirror for almost ten years studied spectra of 100 thousand red giants of the Milky Way. This allowed not only to determine their composition, but also to establish the age of the stars, as well as some features of the movement. Then these data were combined with the information obtained by the GAIA apparatus. Thanks to him, in turn, astronomers know the exact distance from the ground to millions of stars. As a result of the comparison, it was possible to form a spatial map of the position of the luminaire and see how they hesitate, as if on a giant wave.
Source: Naked Science