Milky Way Galaxy: NASA Scientists Find A Mysterious Break

nasa milky way galaxy

Astronomers at NASA have claimed to find a new break in the milky way galaxy. The milky way galaxy consists of the planets, stars, gas, and dust. Additionally, scientists have said that they have seen a new feature sticking out of the galaxy like never before.

Moreover, they have informed the world that the unrecognized feature looks similar to a splinter, and the structure was identical to a contingent of stars. Besides, something like this has never happened in 3000 light-years that the feature’s orientation looks so different from the other galaxy arms. While the astronomers have an approximate idea of the size, they have also said that much is unknown. Additionally, NASA has explained that since the earth is inside the galaxy, they could not witness the complete structure.

This latest structure could give rise to specific theories that are unknown to scientists. Besides, they will also have an opportunity to understand the mysteries that the galaxy holds. They also informed that they spotted this mysterious structure when they were actually searching for newborn stars. The astronomers were using Nasa’s Spitzer Space Telescope to look for these stars. But they ended up spotting a structure that will now be a mystery to solve for them.

A study focused on the Sagittarius arm, a nearby portion of the arm of the galaxy, was published in the journal ‘Astronomy and Astrophysics’.

All About Milky Way Galaxy And The Missions

The newborn stars and the nebulae are claimed to be aligned with the shape of the arms that they live in. Additionally, the scientists at NASA use data released by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia mission to measure the exact distance to the stars.

nasa milky way galaxy photo
Image Courtesy: NASA JPL

Michael Kuhn, an astrophysicist at Caltech spoke about a key property. He said that the significant property of the spiral arms is that they very tightly wind around the galaxy. Kuhn is also the lead writer of the paper. This latest structure discovered by the scientists consists of 4 nebulae. These are the Eagle Nebula, the Omega Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, and the Lagoon Nebula.

The scientists have said that they are working on the Gaia mission. And are also looking at the Spitzer data. Studying the milky way is not an easy job as the earth lies in it. However, scientists and researchers are doing their best to understand the new break in the galaxy.

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A student by day and a writer by night, Diksha Arya holds interest in writing poems and reading articles on politics and policies