(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of researchers has discovered the original core of the Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers have long put forward the theory that a stellar core exists in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, but so far they have not been able to find evidence for this. In this new attempt, the researchers analyzed data from the Gaia space telescope.
The theory suggests that if there is a stellar core at the center of the galaxy, then the stars that make it up contain very little metal, because they formed before such metals were scattered around the region where the Milky Way formed.
Scientists believe that these stars are composed mainly of helium and hydrogen. This assumption somewhat narrowed the circle of searches, as did the theory that if there is a nucleus in the center of the galaxy, then it is located in the constellation Sagittarius, which is located in the center of the disk that forms the galaxy. The team had to sift through approximately 2 million stars, which was certainly not an easy task.
To further test the star cluster, the researchers noted its movement relative to other stars around it, and pinpointed the location of what should be the center of the galactic disk.
They also accounted for stars blocked by dust or other objects. Scientists took measurements and found that the cluster is only 0.2% of the mass of the galaxy.
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