NASA - New Map of Milky Way Reveals Millions of Unseen Objects

"Nearly 400 years after Galileo determined the wispy Milky Way actually comprises
myriad individual stars, scientists using NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have
done the same for the "X-ray Milky Way."

The origin of this X-ray counterpart to the Milky Way, known to scientists as the
galactic X-ray background, has been a long-standing mystery. Scientists have
determined the background is not diffuse, as many have thought. Rather, it emanates
from untold hundreds of millions of individual sources dominated by a type of dead
star called a white dwarf, along with stars with unusually strong coronas.

If confirmed, this new finding would have a profound impact on our understanding of
the history of our galaxy, from star-formation and supernova rates to stellar
evolution. The result solves major theoretical problems yet points to a surprising
undercounting of stellar objects, perhaps by a hundredfold."

More at
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006...y_Way_Map.html
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Nick in Northallerton
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