Astronomers discover a huge object in the Milky Way
(ORDO NEWS) — Chinese experts have discovered in the Milky Way a kind of gaseous structure of enormous size. She received the name Cattail. This is reported by Science Alert.
Astronomers cannot yet say with certainty if this gas blob is part of our galaxy. It is too large, so it is very strange that no one noticed it before.
Some scientists have suggested that this may actually be a separate arm of the galactic spiral. Research regarding the discovered object was published in the scientific journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
In 2019, specialists used a special radio telescope FAST in order to find clouds of atomic hydrogen HI. If you know the shape of these clouds, as well as their location, you can easily create a real map of all the existing arms of the Milky Way.
It was then that astronomers found an incomprehensible structure located at a distance of almost 72 thousand light years from the center of our galaxy.
It is worth noting that most of the gas filaments are located in the immediate vicinity of the center of the Milky Way. Moreover, they are necessarily associated with spiral arms.
If this object is actually a thread, then the question arises as to how the Cattail moved to the outer region of the galaxy. If it is a spiral arm, then why does it not have the same shape as the other arms of the Milky Way.
To date, experts cannot give an exact answer what kind of giant object it is in our galaxy. They are conducting further research and hope that they will soon receive an answer to their question.
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