Scientists discover hundreds of galaxies hidden behind Milky Way

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MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered hundreds of galaxies just 250 million light years away from Earth which had been hidden from view until now by our Milky Way galaxy.

The discovery may help to explain the mysterious gravitational anomaly dubbed the Great Attractor, that appears to be drawing the Milky Way and hundreds of thousands of other galaxies towards it with a gravitational force equivalent to a million billion Suns.

Using Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's (CSIRO) Parkes radio telescope in Australia equipped with an innovative receiver, scientists were able to see through the stars and dust of the Milky Way, into a previously unexplored region of space.

According to Lister Staveley-Smith, professor at The University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), the team found 883 galaxies, a third of which had never been seen before.