We Just Found Where Our Galaxy Ends—And It's Closer Than We Thought!

Scientists discovered the real edge of the Milky Way by mapping how old the stars are, like reading their birth certificates! They found that new stars stop being born about 35,000 to 40,000 light-years from the galaxy's center [that's the distance light travels in a year, times thousands], and beyond that, stars are just drifting slowly outward like cosmic wanderers. Now we finally know where our galaxy's "star factory" actually closes down!