Experts have discovered that the Milky Way is twice as thick than previously believed. According to a report in ABC, the discovery was made by professor Bryan Gaensler from the University of Sydney and his team. The research team found out that the enormous spiral-shaped collection gas and stars is 12,000 light-years thick when seen edge-on, not 6000 as scientists previously thought. "This was quite a stunning result,' said Gaensler. "It was a bit of a shock to us. It's like walking out into your backyard and finding your tree is twice the size you remembered,' he added. The researchers made their discovery without high-tech equipment or powerful telescopes. Instead, they downloaded publicly available data from the internet and carefully analyzed it.