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Two clouds of gas, both worthy, appear side by side in the fair Milky Way. Known as “molecular clusters,” these enormous star-forming gas provinces stretch across the sky, appearing to form a bridge between the constellations of Taurus and Perseus where new suns can grow and prosper for billions of years. ‘years to come.
It’s a heavenly tale of cursed love and, according to new research, it’s also a huge optical illusion.
New 3D maps of the region, created with the help of the European Space Agency Gaia space observatory, show that these canoodling clouds are in fact hundreds of Light years apart – separated by a huge empty orb where neither gas, dust nor stars can find a hold.
Dubbed the Perseus-Taurus Supershell, this newly detected sinkhole stretches about 500 light years wide, according to a study published on September 22 in the Letters from astrophysical journals – approximately 115 times the distance between Earth and the nearest alien sun, Proxima Centauri. While hundreds of young stars have already formed around the edges of the bubble, the large spherical void inside points to an obvious culprit, the authors wrote: a catastrophic supernova explosion.
“Either a supernova was triggered in the heart of this bubble and pushed the gas outwards to form what we now call the ‘Perseus-Taurus supercoque’, or a series of supernovae occurring over millions of years. created it over time, ”said Shmuel, lead author of the study. Bialy, postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a press release.
Astronomers have known about the Taurus and Perseus molecular clouds for decades, but all previous research was based on two-dimensional observations. Now, with data from Gaia, the study’s authors have developed a new technique for mapping dust in remote corners of the galaxy in 3D. (The authors describe their methods in more detail in a second study, published Sept. 22 in The Journal of Astrophysics.)
By mapping these seemingly related clouds of gas, the researchers realized that there was no physical connection between them, but rather that they resided on opposite sides of an empty, invisible cavity. The long strand of gas that seemed to connect them is just a “chance projection” that resides on the Taurus side closest to the bubble, and only appears to connect to the more distant Perseus side, the team wrote. in his study.
Given the positions of molecular clouds and the age of the stars they contain, the researchers estimated that both clouds formed as a result of the same supernova explosion around 10 to 20 years ago. million years. Explosions like these happen when large stars run out of fuel, lose their outer layers of hot gas, and then collapse under theirs. gravity. This sudden collapse creates a powerful shock wave, pushing all that remaining gas and dust away from the decaying remains of the ex-star.
In this case, two large drops of gas appear to have gathered on opposite sides of the shock wave, where each began to condense and form new stars, the researchers said.
“This demonstrates that when a star dies, its supernova generates a chain of events that can ultimately lead to the birth of new stars,” Bialy said.
So this story of crossed star clusters has a hopeful ending after all. But the happiest takeaway, the researchers say, is the new mapping technique itself. This study represents the first time that molecular clouds have been imaged in 3D, and it opens the door to many potential discoveries about how gas reorganizes to form stars across the galaxy, the authors wrote.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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