Friar Bellows

The Milky Way is a serial killer.

In the constellation of Serpens lies a faint globular cluster called Palomar 5 which is being ripped apart by the tidal forces of our galaxy. The result is an emasculated globular accompanied by two tails of ejected stars, one leading and one trailing the cluster's direction of orbit. The long, narrow tails extend as much as ten degrees across the sky, and contain 20 percent more stars then the cluster itself, and so the days of this abused globular are definitely numbered. Astronomers think that this isn't the first time our galaxy has committed gravitational globucide; they speculate that it used to host a lot more than the roughly 160 or globulars that presently exist, and their models predict that roughly half of these remaining globulars will be destroyed in the next 10 billion years or so. So the plan is to use the same sleuthing techniques they used on Palomar 5 (see the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) to detect tidal tails around other globular clusters, in the hope of nailing down the effect of tidal disruption in the formation and evolution of our galaxy.

Click the pic for more detail:



Check out these links for more info:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ed_020603.html
http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20020603.pal5.html
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0307446 (technical)

Arken

LOCAL GROUP (AP) - Having been confronted with evidence of the crime, the Milky Way responded, "All right, I did it! And you know what? I'd do it again! I'm glad, I tell ya! Glad!" When pressed further, the galaxy said, "When I get out, Starsky's a dead man!"

Shadowy Man

The Milky Way is also tidally stripping the gas from the Magellanic Clouds too.

This killer must be stopped!

Shake

Johnny Cochrane has been appointed as defense counsel for the Milky Way, and was quoted as saying, "The Newtonian model doesn't fit, so you must acquit!"

Sorry, best I could come up with on short notice (and at work)!

Mageth

At last, the identity of the Zodiac Killer is known...

MortalWombat

"And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling astronomers."

simian

Somebody needs to speak up in defense of the Milky Way. Let's face it: at worst it would be astronomy slaughter. Milky Way was going about its own business, on a well-determined path. Then these two foreign bodies (that may or may not have ties with Terra-ism) jumped out in front of the Milky Way. There was simply no way the Milky Way could react in time to prevent the incidents - the laws of physics were stacked against the Milky Way from the moment the foreign bodies thoughtlessly endangered themselves.

Simian

Rhaedas

The Milky Way was heard to complain later, "Gravity made me do it, man. Gravity sucks!"

theyeti

When asked about its involvement in the crime, the Milky Way indignantly retorted, "Hey, 5 out of 6 of my sentient life forms are okay with it," and then went on to exclaim, "Those damn beings on the outter spiral arm, who make such a fuss...next time I engulf something, it might just happen to collide with their star, heh heh..." In response to the Milky Way's threats, a judge issued a restraining order.

theyeti

Mageth

So, how long until some theist attributes the actions of the Milky Way to the corruption of original sin? "Man fell in the Garden, resulting in sin, death, germs, mosquitos, and globular cluster-eating galaxies."