When did depictions of the milky way change from spiral to barred?

[AniThyng]

So it just struck me today that the consensus on the shape of the milky way has changed from the spiral galaxy to a barred galaxy. When did this change happen? Unlike the demotion of Pluto this seems to have gotten far less press.

Follow up : will star trek and wh40K change thier milky way images to match?

[SpottedKitty]

Apparently astronomers began to suspect it in the 1990s, according to Wiki, with a confirmation from Spitzer observations about 10 years ago. It doesn't seem to be a large bar, and it's not all that distinct from what we can see of the Central Bulge in visible light, which didn't help.

It would probably be much brighter and clearer, though, if you're looking from somewhere like M31; how to make this observation is left as an exercise for the student.

[AniThyng]

Yeah, I read that too. What I'm trying to figure out is when the images we used to show the Milky Way caught up to the new consensus because to be honest I still have the image of the Milky Way as being a typical spiral itch bulge rather then the bar now.

[Mange]

So it just struck me today that the consensus on the shape of the milky way has changed from the spiral galaxy to a barred galaxy. When did this change happen? Unlike the demotion of Pluto this seems to have gotten far less press.

It was observations made by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope that in 2005 led a team of astronomers to report that the Milky Way is in fact a barred spiral galaxy.

EDIT: Sorry, I missed the date of the last post, but I hope it doesn't count as necroing as I brought some information to the table.

[AniThyng]

So it just struck me today that the consensus on the shape of the milky way has changed from the spiral galaxy to a barred galaxy. When did this change happen? Unlike the demotion of Pluto this seems to have gotten far less press.

It was observations made by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope that in 2005 led a team of astronomers to report that the Milky Way is in fact a barred spiral galaxy.

EDIT: Sorry, I missed the date of the last post, but I hope it doesn't count as necroing as I brought some information to the table.

I was wondering when someone would get around to replying with more detail...

Yeah, anyway it was just interesting because my mental image of what the milky way looked like was still stuck on the old ways until some other threads elsewhere prompted me to look it up.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

So it just struck me today that the consensus on the shape of the milky way has changed from the spiral galaxy to a barred galaxy. When did this change happen? Unlike the demotion of Pluto this seems to have gotten far less press.

It was observations made by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope that in 2005 led a team of astronomers to report that the Milky Way is in fact a barred spiral galaxy.

EDIT: Sorry, I missed the date of the last post, but I hope it doesn't count as necroing as I brought some information to the table.

I was wondering when someone would get around to replying with more detail...

Yeah, anyway it was just interesting because my mental image of what the milky way looked like was still stuck on the old ways until some other threads elsewhere prompted me to look it up.

It also might be due to new observations have shown the Milky Way is considerably larger than previously thought:

Link

This was discovered about 18 months ago.