The super empty hole in the Milky Way is actually 500 light years. What is this?

The empty cave caused by the outbreak of the supernova turned out to be the cradle of the new star

Astronomers believe that this huge cavity is formed by a supernova explosion of millions of years ago.

Astronomers found a huge sphere cavity in the galaxy, located in the area shown on the right side of the picture. The magnifying areas on the left are marked with blue and red with blue and red molecular clouds. Although the two seem to be in contact with each other in the cavity, the new 3D images show that they are near the edge of the cavity and are far away from each other.

A new study shows that this bubble cavity has 500 light years wide and is located between the star cradle of Yingxian and Taurus.

These gases and interstellar dust used to produce new stars are called molecular clouds. They are considered by the same supernova eruption incident, or another old star explosion in about 10 million years ago. Researchers said that this new discovery may reveal how the supernova explosion has spawned new stars.

Photo: The magnificent scene of the supernova explosion

The post -doctoral researcher of the Institute of theory and Computing (ITC) of the Harvard Stone Sports Physics Center (ITC), the chief researcher Shmuel Bialy, said: "On the surface of this huge empty bubble, hundreds of stars are formed or have been formed. "

"We have two theories: either a supernova burst out in the center of this empty bubble, pushing the gas towards the outer layer, forming what we call the" Hero Fairy-Taurus Super Shell "; or a series of supernovas This structure continued to form in millions of years. "

By using the data of the star surveying and mapping aircraft "Gaia" of the European Space Agency, the researchers first painted the Yingxian-Taurus molecule cloud in 3D, and found the large-hole area that could not be found in the previous 2D images.

"We can observe these molecular clouds decades ago, but we never know their true shape, depth, and thickness, and we cannot determine its distance." Common author, post -doctoral researcher at the Harvard Stone Semon Astronomy Center Catherine Zucker said, "Now we are only 1%of its position, which allows us to distinguish the empty hole in the middle."

The research team uses a data visual software called Glue to draw a 3D image of molecular clouds. This software was founded by Alyssa Goodman, co -author Alyssa Goodman. The research team's surveying and mapping star cradle aims to understand how the stars and dust changes the position in a star explosion and form a new star. Their research pointed out that the Yingxian and Taurus molecular clouds were generated by the shock waves that broke out by the same supernova, which showed the significant influence of the star eruption.

"This can explain that when a star dies, its supernova eruption can give birth to a series of chain incidents, which eventually leads to the birth of the new star." Baily said.

related information

Galaxy galaxy is a rotal galaxy containing the solar system. From 100,000 to 180,000 light years. It has about 100 billion to 400 billion stars and may have 100 billion planets. The solar system is about 24,000 to 28,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. It has a dense gas and dust, and is called the inner edge of the spiral arm of the hunter arm. At the location of the sun, the revolution cycle is about 24 million years.

Supernova is a violent explosion experienced by some stars in the end of its evolution. This explosion is extremely bright. The electromagnetic radiation in the process can often illuminate the entire galaxy where it is, and it may gradually decline for several weeks to several months or even years. During this period, the radiation energy released by a supernova can be comparable to the total radiation energy of the sun in its life.

By: Samantha Mathewson

FY: Proxima-B

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