Where would you find the biggest Milky Way Bar?

If you’re thinking of candy you’re thinking way too small. The biggest Milky Way Bar is at the center of our galaxy. It’s an estimated 27,000 light years in length.

Since the 1980s scientists have suspected that our galaxy had a bar in the center. In 2005, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, a group of astronomers completed a major study of the galaxy. They surveyed about 30 million stars in an effort to build a detailed picture of the inside of the Milky Way. They discovered that our galaxy isn’t a run of the mill spiral galaxy. Instead, it has a very long central bar in the middle made up of old stars.

*Artists concept image courtesy NASA