14 DAY TRIAL // One of the things that makes discovering more about the universe, or just our galaxy, hard is that we're stuck to the rock we call home and can't really get a better vantage point on things we're interested in.
For example, it's hard to study the center of our galaxy, which hosts a large number of active stars, because our view is obscured by the thick gas and dust clouds around the central bulge.
This is why astronomers look at infrared light emanating from the center of the Milky Way since it can travel through the gas mostly unaffected.
Using ESO's VISTA telescope, researchers were able to get a better picture of the galactic bulge and have concluded that it's "peanut" shaped, like a three-dimensional X-shaped structure, at least from certain angles.
"We find that the inner region of our Galaxy has the shape of a peanut in its shell from the side, and of a highly elongated bar from above," Ortwin Gerhard, coauthor of the new study, explained.
"It is the first time that we can see this clearly in our own Milky Way, and simulations in our group and by others show that this shape is characteristic of a barred galaxy that started out as a pure disc of stars," he added.