Astronomers spot strange “shard” in Milky Way’s spiral arm

this Unusual ‘break’ has been discovered in nearest galaxy Helical arm on the ground. Astronomers have never seen anything like this before, and they don’t really know how it got there.

New research published in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics describes “High angle structure in the arched arm. By “high height”, astronomers indicate the extreme angle at which this elongated star cluster emerges. The arched arm of the Milky Way. Newly discovered feature measures 3000 light-years in length (less than 3% of the total diameter of the entire galaxy), made up of young stars and star-forming gas clouds. Astrophysicist Michael Kuhn of the California Institute of Technology is the lead author of the study.

It is not easy to map the different characteristics of our galaxy, and that is because we live directly inside this thing. As the new article says, “It was difficult to relate the regions of individual star formation to their larger galactic environment due to our perspective from inside the disk.”

Fortunately, astronomical tools and techniques can help in this regard. In this case, Kuhn and his colleagues analyzed the data collected by Spitzer SpaceTElescope, which NASA took down just last year. Spitzer discovered infrared light, making it an ideal tool for observing newly born stars that might be covered with dense clouds of gas and dust (i.e. nebulae) from which they arise. are formed. Specifically, the team looked at data from a survey called the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinary (GLIMPSE), in which Spitzer interviewed more than 100,000 star children.

Data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission was also analyzed, providing the team with precise measurements of interstellar distances. It allowedm to create a 3D view of the arched arm – the prominent spiral arm of the Milky Way.

“When we put the Gaia and Spitzer data together and finally see this detailed 3D map, we can see that there is a great deal of complexity in this region that was not evident before,” Cohn told NASA. Press release.

The The arched arm is a well-studied feature of the Milky Way and is home to several regions of giant star formation, including the Omega Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, the Lake Nebula, and the Eagle Nebula, the latter containing the famous nebula. . Pillars of creation. For the new study, the researchers He sought to determine the locations and velocities of star-forming regions in part of the Sagittarius arm.

The newly discovered structure stands out With a tilt angle of about 60 degrees. The arm itself wraps tightly around the Milky Way with a 12 degree tilt (for context, a perfect circle has a 0 degree tilt). Hence the description of the fibula as a wide-angle structure.

“Ultimately, this is a reminder that there are many uncertainties surrounding the large-scale structure of the Milky Way, and we need to look at the details if we are to understand the big picture,” explained Robert Benjamin, an astrophysicist at university. . from Wisconsin Whitewater and Principal Investigator at GLIMPSE.

Authors of new article not sure exactly how inhalants come about It did form, but it is possible that young stars within this expanse were born at the same time and in the same place. As closely related siblings, these stars should have been affected by the same effects caused by the rotation of the galaxy – forces like gravity and shear. Thus, improved models of stars, in terms of distances and speeds, could shed light on this new astronomical mystery. And the Hungarian spirals in general, which are also mysterious.

“This structure is a small part of the Milky Way, but it can tell us something important about the galaxy as a whole,” Benjamin said.

Astronomers have already observed characteristics of odd balls in other spiral galaxies, including objects Called spurs and feathers, some of them protrude perpendicular to the spiral arms. Spurs are bright spots caused by an abundance of stars, while feathers are tufts of dust. The new characteristic seen in the Milky Way is neither of these two characteristics and is therefore considered unique.

It is now an open question whether other wide-angle structures exist in our galaxy or elsewhere in the universe. This will be the subject of future work, as well as further research to confirm the new functionality as a bona fide infrastructure with bow arm.

Following: How heavy is the Milky Way?