What’s in a Shape?

Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have detected that our Milky Way galaxy, while shaped like a big disk that rotates, is actually warped at the outer edges.
The warping causes our galaxy to have a turned up lip at one end and a turned down lip at the opposite edge – like a ‘bit of a twisted ‘S’ shape’. It’s theorized that warping seems to be caused by torque induced by the rotation of the inner disk of the galaxy.
Still great planet viewing in the pre-dawn sky. Winter constellation Orion is surrounded by the Winter Circle: Auriga, Gemini, Canis Minor, Canis Major and Taurus.