(ORDO NEWS) — An international team led by Chinese scientists using the FAST radio telescope discovered the largest gaseous cloud in the universe, the South China Morning Post wrote.
As specified in the material, this discovery can help researchers better understand the origin of galaxies. The giant cloud is composed predominantly of atomic hydrogen and is 20 times larger than our Milky Way galaxy.
The discovery was made possible thanks to the super-powerful FAST telescope. It is located in Guizhou Province in southwest China.
The discovery was made by astronomers from China, Europe and the USA. They discovered the cloud after pointing a 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope – the largest of its kind in the world – in the direction of a group of galaxies known as Stefan’s Quintet in the constellation Pegasus.
The giant gaseous structure they discovered was at least twice as large and an order of magnitude less dense than any previously discovered similar cloud.
Its location is also quite unusual – it is located relatively far from the central area of Stephen’s Quintet.
Now scientists have to figure out why “it still exists at all.” It is noted that the low-density atomic gas should have been destroyed by ultraviolet radiation in the cosmic background, according to all available modern theories.
It was also reported that the James Webb Space Telescope transmitted a new image of the Pillars of Creation. They are made up of clouds of cosmic dust and gas in which new stars are born.
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