Incredible. "Hi honey, what did you do at work today? Casually discovered the edge of the galaxy. How are you?"
neals 8 hours ago [-]
Just the daily post that makes me feel small and insignificant.
dylan604 8 hours ago [-]
I prefer that feeling much more than the modern sense from social media where everyone is abnormally important
rambojohnson 1 hours ago [-]
Seriously. Being meaningless and insignificant gives you more freedom, and nowhere to hide from what you do with it. I’ve never understood cosmic dread. It feels like a release valve instead of a threat.
dotancohen 8 hours ago [-]
Is this a non-sequiter or just poorly phrased?
> Disk galaxies like the Milky Way form stars “inside-out” — starting from the center and working outwards through the disk. So, as a general rule, the farther out astronomers look, the younger the stars are.
Do they meant looking out from Earth (which is actually nearer to the center of a spiral arm than to either end) or out from the galactic bulge. Either way doesn't make sense.
eventualcomp 29 minutes ago [-]
To use an analogy, to add to everybody else: it's like rings on a tree stump. The innermost part of the stump is the oldest; the outer the youngest. Earth is on one of those in-between rings, neither the oldest nor the newest - doesn't matter which of the in-betweens, to be honest.
Suppose now that you're an ant on the middle ring of that tree stump. No matter which way you're looking from Earth's middle-ring, either the rings will get gradually older and then younger with increasing distance (if you're looking towards the center-ish), or the rings will get strictly younger (if you're looking away from the center-ish).
This analogy obviously breaks down if you delve into details but that should give a better intuition to what's going on.
happytoexplain 6 hours ago [-]
I actually am not following what the ambiguity is - stars farther out from the center are younger, no?
kadoban 6 hours ago [-]
The Earth isn't the center of the galaxy, so this feels confusing/confused:
> So, as a general rule, the farther out astronomers look, the younger the stars are.
rafram 13 minutes ago [-]
The father out from the center of the galaxy they look, the younger the stars are.
malfist 6 hours ago [-]
When does "starting in the center" mean anything besides "starting in the center"?
The earth is not the center of the galaxy
assimpleaspossi 5 hours ago [-]
He didn't say that. He said earth is nearer to the center of a spiral arm.
malfist 33 minutes ago [-]
What does the center of a spiral arm have to do with the center of the galaxy?
dylan604 46 minutes ago [-]
the location of earth has precisely zero to do with the topic
_factor 7 hours ago [-]
Poorly phrased. The most recent stars are on the edges. The inner stars were first, hence the “working outwards”.
ww520 5 hours ago [-]
Looking from Earth at the stars closer to the center of a galaxy, they are found to be older. Looking from Earth at the stars closer to the edge of a galaxy, they are found to be younger.
5 hours ago [-]
colechristensen 7 hours ago [-]
It is beyond obvious what they mean.
JumpCrisscross 6 hours ago [-]
Try: "the farther out [from the center] astronomers look"
layer8 7 hours ago [-]
[dead]
yrcyrc 7 hours ago [-]
Great. Next Laniakea
Rendered at 04:24:16 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Paper: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/04/aa58144-...
Suppose now that you're an ant on the middle ring of that tree stump. No matter which way you're looking from Earth's middle-ring, either the rings will get gradually older and then younger with increasing distance (if you're looking towards the center-ish), or the rings will get strictly younger (if you're looking away from the center-ish).
This analogy obviously breaks down if you delve into details but that should give a better intuition to what's going on.
> So, as a general rule, the farther out astronomers look, the younger the stars are.
The earth is not the center of the galaxy