What significant structural revelation about the Milky Way was provided by Harlow Shapley's globular cluster mapping?
Answer
The first solid evidence that the Sun is located far from the Milky Way’s core, in the outer regions.
Prior to the 1930s, it was often assumed that the Sun occupied a central position within the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomer Harlow Shapley challenged this view by meticulously mapping the spatial distribution of globular clusters. He observed a dramatic asymmetry: nearly all these ancient, centrally located orbiters were concentrated toward one specific region of the sky, which corresponds to the constellation Sagittarius. Since globular clusters orbit the Galactic Center, this lopsided pattern demonstrated that the Sun must be offset significantly from the true galactic core, residing instead in the outer regions of the main disk structure.
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