Milky Way's Spiral Arms Caused by its Crashes with Dwarf Galaxy

Scientists stated that the two powerful collisions with a dwarf galaxy in the past two billion years was the cause of the spiral arm structure of the Milky Way. The new findings were published in the journal Nature. In trying to explain the shape of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, with its prominent spiral arms rooted in a central bar, scientists had earlier dismissed the influence of outside forces.

However, in the new study, scientists focused on the nearby Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, much of which had been ripped apart by the gravitational pull of the Milky Way, leaving debris that formed a large but very faint stream of stars around our galaxy.  This dwarf galaxy might have once been 100 times more massive.

 This dwarf galaxy's collision with the Milky Way triggered the formation of our galaxy's spiral arms, caused the flaring seen in the outermost disk and influenced the growth of its central bar.  The impact could have generated ringlike structures wrapping around the Milky Way, similar to ones actually seen in our galaxy, such as the Monoceros ring.

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Australia under the Captaincy of Michael Clarke won Test Series against Sri Lanka

Australia  under the captaincy of skipper Michael Clarke won the Test series against Sri Lanka 1-0 when the sexcond test concluded on 20 September 2011 Tuesday. It was Clarke’s first Test tour as captain. In the first test Australia won 125-run victory in Galle. The second Test in Pallekele ended in a rain-affected draw.

Clarke scored a fluent century and Michael Hussey narrowly missed a third consecutive hundred as Australia piled up 488 in their second innings before they were all out shortly before close with a lead of 331 runs. Clarke hit 112 and Hussey made 93 in a remarkable batting revival after Australia had conceded a first innings lead of 157 runs in good batting conditions.

The victory saw Australia and Sri Lanka exchange positions in the official Test rankings, with Clarke’s men moving to fourth place and Sri Lanka dropping to fifth.

Tim Nielsen stepped down as Australia's coach after helping the side to a series victory in Sri Lanka. Nielsen, who took over from John Buchanan in 2007, made the announcement after Australia managed a draw in the final Test at the SSC in Colombo.

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Russian Grandmaster Peter Svidler won the Chess World Cup held in Russia

Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler won the Chess World Cup title on 20 September after winning a four-game final against his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia) an industrial town hosted over 120 world's greatest chess players from 40 countries who fought for the title.

Svidler is a six-time Russian champion and one of the highest-ranked players in the world. He defeated strong competitors like American Gata Kamsky and Urkainian Ruslan Ponomariov earlier in the competition. With the victory Svidler won a $96000 prize money and a ticket to the 2012 world championship matches.

Russia holds the No.1 spot on the World Chess Federation's top-10 list, followed by Ukraine.

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