A new gigantic system discovered on the Milky Way

Although astronomers have been studying the Milky Way for decades, our specific position and our observations within it do not allow us to detect all objects there, in which case, scientists often face difficulties. However, even under these conditions, it is strange that the cat’s tail, a vast galaxy with an area of ​​more than 3,500, has never been discovered. Light years, Recently discovered by Chinese astrophysicists.

The newly discovered structure called Kattil is a true astronomical marvel. It’s a huge gas ring, and astronomers do not know if it’s part of a galaxy that we have not noticed until now.

While this is not a sign of a mapping spiral arm, it may be our biggest gas strain in the jungle Galaxy Discovered to date. This is described in the accepted article Letters from the Journal of Astronomy, Available on the preprint server arXiv.

A new system emerged by observing hydrogen clouds

Structure ” It appears to be the most distant and largest giant fiber in the galaxy to date. The question of how such a large filament is formed in this extreme galaxy remains open. Alternatively, the catwalk may be part of a new arm … However it is surprising that this system does not fully mimic the disintegration of the galaxy. Write to the faculty of Nanjing University in China.

There are many reasons why it is difficult to map the Milky Way in three dimensions. One of them is that it is very difficult to calculate the distance to cosmic objects. Another, there are a lot of objects, so it’s hard to tell if something is a large group or a random collection. To unravel all this, a team led by Nanjing University astronomer Song Li used the largest five hundred meter aperture radio telescope (FAST) to search for atomic neutral hydrogen (HI) clouds.

Such clouds are commonly found in spiral arms Constellations Like us; By studying the subtle differences in light from hydrogen, the number and structure of the Milky Way’s hands can be mapped from the inside.

In August 2019, scientists used fast to search for HI radio broadcasts, and the data appeared to be a larger system. When they calculated how fast the structure was moving, they had a surprise: its speed was about 71,750 light-years from the center of the galaxy – the outer parts of the galaxy.

An enormous system that creates intrigue

This distance – more than the known spin weapons in this part of the galaxy – is quite large, about 3,590 light-years long and 675 light-years wide, based on fast data. But then, when the researchers combined their results with HI4 to HI4PI tracking data, they found that it was even larger – up to about 16,300 light years. It is much larger than the gas belt known as the Gold Belt, which was recently estimated to be 9,000 light years long.

The discovery raises interesting questions. Most gas fibers are very close to the center of the galaxy and are associated with spiral arms. If it is a fiber, it is not known how it formed and could exist beyond the known spiral arms of the Milky Way. On the other hand, if it’s a spiral arm, that’s special too. The Milky Way galaxy has long since stumbled and disintegrated at the junction of another galaxy. However, the shape of the cot is not entirely compatible with this decay.

proof’s: arXiv