https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/01/the-galaxy-is-not-flat-researchers-show-in-new-3d-model-of-the-milky-way/

Six years of tracking a special class of star have yielded a new and improved 3D model of our galaxy, based on direct observation rather than theoretical frameworks. And although no one ever really thought the Milky Way was flat flat, the curves at its edges have now been characterized in better detail than ever before.

Researchers at the University of Warsaw in Poland took on this challenge some time ago with the desire to observe the shape of the galaxy directly rather than indirectly; although we have a good idea of the shape, that idea is based on models that involve assumptions or observations of other galaxies.