 A new understanding of our galaxy structure began in an unlikely way on Twitter. A research effort sparked by tweets led scientists to confirm that the Milky Way's central bulge forms an X shape. The newly published study used data from NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer Y's mission. Infrared light allows astronomers to see the structures of galaxies in spite of dust, which blocks critical details in visible light. But it was the Milky Way's appearance in the tweets that got the attention of other astronomers. Some chimed in about the appearance of the bulge, a football shaped central structure that is three dimensional compared to the galaxy's flat disc. Within the bulge the wise data seemed to show a surprising X structure which had never been as clearly demonstrated before in the Milky Way. The bulge is a key signature of formation of the Milky Way. If we understand the bulge we will understand the key processes that have formed and shaped our galaxy. The Milky Way is an example of a disc galaxy, a collection of stars and gas in a rotating disc. In these kinds of galaxies when the thin disc of gas and stars is sufficiently massive a stellar bar may form consisting of stars moving in a boxed shape orbit around the center. Our own Milky Way has a bar as do nearly two thirds of all nearby disc galaxies. Over time the bar may become unstable and buckle in the center. The resulting bulge would contain stars that move around the galactic center perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy and in and out radially. When viewed from the side the stars would appear distributed in a box like or peanut like shape as they orbit. In the structure according to the new study there is a giant X shaped structure of stars crossing at the center of the galaxy. A bulge can also form when galaxies merge but the Milky Way has not merged with any large galaxy in the last nine billion years. We see the box shape and the X within it clearly in the wise image which demonstrates that internal formation processes have driven the bulge formation, Ness said. This also reinforces the idea that our galaxy has let a fairly quiet life without major merging events since the bulge was formed as this shape would have been disrupted if we had any major interactions with other galaxies. The Milky Way's X shaped bulge can be reported in previous studies. Images from the NASA Cosmic Background Explorer, COPE, Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment suggest a box structure for the bulge. Thanks for watching and remember the ways by which we arrive at knowledge are hardly less wonderful than the discovery of these things themselves.