With a tweet, astronomers crack open mystery of a massive bulge at the center of our galaxy

Within certain astronomical circles, it was immediately clear Dustin Lang’s tweet was provocative. Not controversially so — lacking celebrity skin or celebrity abuse, his message would leave the Internet unbroken.

There was, however, a curious bulge.

Lang’s photo succeeded in cracking open a scientific mystery of a hypothesized — though until now unconfirmed — X-shaped lump at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

“The bulge is a key signature of formation of the Milky Way Galaxy,” Melissa Ness, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, said in a statement. “If we understand the bulge we will understand the key processes that have formed and shaped our galaxy.”

The X that marks the Galatic Bulge, enhanced zoomed image (Dustin Lang, Dunlap Institute)