shrinking Galaxy

[scotia]

On the BBC news page there is a headline "Shrinkflation strikes again as Galaxy gets smaller"
What's this about? Have I missed important scientific news?
So I clicked on the link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66924100
And I discovered that the word "chocolate" now appears in the headline

[stevensfo]

On the BBC news page there is a headline "Shrinkflation strikes again as Galaxy gets smaller"
What's this about? Have I missed important scientific news?
So I clicked on the link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66924100
And I discovered that the word "chocolate" now appears in the headline

Amid confirmation today that there is definitely water on Mars!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/412009065883774943/

Steve

[ursaminortaur]

On the BBC news page there is a headline "Shrinkflation strikes again as Galaxy gets smaller"
What's this about? Have I missed important scientific news?
So I clicked on the link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66924100
And I discovered that the word "chocolate" now appears in the headline

But to bring this back onto a science rather than economics topic, it appears that the visible borders of the galaxy/milky way that we live in are expanding.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/are-the-milky-ways-borders-expanding/

The Milky Way is pretty big already. But our work shows that at least the visible part of it is slowly increasing in size, as stars form on the galactic outskirts. It won’t be quick, but if you could come back and look in 3 billion years’ time the galaxy would be about 5 percent bigger than it is today,” said Martínez-Lombilla in a press release.

Looking even further down the line, the Milky Way’s borders are expected to change significantly during its anticipated collision with the Andromeda Galaxy. But that won’t likely occur for another 4 billion years, so until then, we can continue to observe galaxies similar to our own to obtain even more detailed and definitive data about the Milky Way’s immediate future.

On shrinkflation though here is an article from November 2022 looking at how a number of chocolate products have shrunk (and a few grown) over the years

https://www.appliancecity.co.uk/news/updates/is-our-chocolate-getting-smaller/

[stevensfo]

On the BBC news page there is a headline "Shrinkflation strikes again as Galaxy gets smaller"
What's this about? Have I missed important scientific news?
So I clicked on the link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66924100
And I discovered that the word "chocolate" now appears in the headline

But to bring this back onto a science rather than economics topic, it appears that the visible borders of the galaxy/milky way that we live in are expanding.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/are-the-milky-ways-borders-expanding/

The Milky Way is pretty big already. But our work shows that at least the visible part of it is slowly increasing in size, as stars form on the galactic outskirts. It won’t be quick, but if you could come back and look in 3 billion years’ time the galaxy would be about 5 percent bigger than it is today,” said Martínez-Lombilla in a press release.

Looking even further down the line, the Milky Way’s borders are expected to change significantly during its anticipated collision with the Andromeda Galaxy. But that won’t likely occur for another 4 billion years, so until then, we can continue to observe galaxies similar to our own to obtain even more detailed and definitive data about the Milky Way’s immediate future.

On shrinkflation though here is an article from November 2022 looking at how a number of chocolate products have shrunk (and a few grown) over the years

https://www.appliancecity.co.uk/news/updates/is-our-chocolate-getting-smaller/

during its anticipated collision with the Andromeda Galaxy.

My memory may be playing tricks, but I think that two galaxies colliding, and the consequences, appeared in a SciFi book by E.E. Doc Smith. I can't remember it very well. When I was about 12-ish, I started his 'Skylark of Space' series and loved it. It was only years later that I discovered that he started writing them before 1920 !! The fact that concepts of force fields and interstellar travel predated William Shatner was a revelation!


Steve

[ursaminortaur]

But to bring this back onto a science rather than economics topic, it appears that the visible borders of the galaxy/milky way that we live in are expanding.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/are-the-milky-ways-borders-expanding/



On shrinkflation though here is an article from November 2022 looking at how a number of chocolate products have shrunk (and a few grown) over the years

https://www.appliancecity.co.uk/news/updates/is-our-chocolate-getting-smaller/

during its anticipated collision with the Andromeda Galaxy.

My memory may be playing tricks, but I think that two galaxies colliding, and the consequences, appeared in a SciFi book by E.E. Doc Smith. I can't remember it very well. When I was about 12-ish, I started his 'Skylark of Space' series and loved it. It was only years later that I discovered that he started writing them before 1920 !! The fact that concepts of force fields and interstellar travel predated William Shatner was a revelation!


Steve

In E E Doc Smith's Lensman space opera the two galaxies had collided two billion years ago creating lots of planets in the process including Earth (the timescales are of course wrong as the Earth is more than twice as old as that). I never really got into E E Doc Smith so I'm not 100% sure if the Skylark and Lensman series are set in the same universe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series

The series begins with Triplanetary, beginning two billion years before the present time and continuing into the near future. The universe has no life-forms aside from the ancient Arisians, and few planets besides the Arisians' native world. The peaceful Arisians have foregone physical skills in order to develop contemplative mental power. The underlying assumption for this series, based on theories of stellar evolution extant at the time of the books' writing, is that planets form only rarely, and therefore our First and Second Galaxies, with their many billions of planets, are unique.

The Eddorians, a dictatorial, power-hungry race, come into our universe from an alien space-time continuum after observing that our galaxy and a sister galaxy (the Second Galaxy) are passing through each other. This will result in the formation of billions of planets and the development of life upon some of them. Dominance over these life forms would offer the Eddorians an opportunity to satisfy their lust for power and control.

Although the Eddorians have developed mental powers almost equal to those of the Arisians, they rely instead for the most part on physical power, which has come to be exercised on their behalf by a hierarchy of underling races. They see the many races in the universe, with which the Arisians were intending to build a peaceful civilization, as fodder for their power drive.