The Milky Way galaxy may be a different shape than we thought (space.com)

I always thought it was a trapezoidal prism

In my youth, the Galaxy was considered to be shaped a bit like a loaf of bread; more or less elliptical, quite flattish and with rounded edges

Sort of a bit like this: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTkMJz7...

Then it was a spiral galaxy with several arms.

Now its a two-armed spiral.

One of these days we'll have the instruments which will be able to determine the truth of the matter, instead of conjecture.