News Astronomy

A bar of stars at the center of the Milky Way looks surprisingly young

Future models of the galaxy’s evolution will have to account for why the bar developed so late

An illustration of the Milky Way galaxy showing the bar-shaped collection of stars at the center of spiraling galactic arms.

The bar-shaped accumulation of stars at the center of the Milky Way (illustrated) might be billions of years younger than the rest of our galaxy.

R. Hurt/JPL-Caltech/NASA, ESO

By James R. Riordon

The biography of our home galaxy may be due for some revisions. That’s because a bar-shaped collection of stars at the center of the Milky Way appears to be much younger than expected.