An international team of astronomers from India and the United States has revealed the nature of a massive cloud of superhot gas surrounding our Milky Way galaxy. The research was published in the scientific journal broadcasting Astrophysical Journal (TAJ).
It was discovered that this gas sphere extends for 700 thousand light years and has a temperature of approximately 10 million °C.
In a new study, the team concluded that the Milky Way’s fire cloud is linked to the evolution of stars in our galaxy.
As star formation continues in various regions of the Milky Way disk, massive stars in these regions occasionally explode as supernovae, heating the gas around the disk to high temperatures. These explosions also enrich gaseous matter with elements synthesized by thermonuclear reactions in the interiors of stars.
As this turbulent gas escapes from the disk and swirls violently, it either enters the environment or cools and falls back onto the disk.
Astronomers also discovered that this hot cloud is rich in α elements.
“This fiery gas appears to be enriched, at least in various aspects, in large amounts of a-elements such as sulfur, magnesium, neon, etc., whose nuclei are multiples of helium nuclei. This provides an important clue to the nuclear reactions occurring at the heart of the star,” he explained. Biman Nath of the Raman Institute in India is a co-author of the paper.
Previously, scientists for the first time to create Galaxy “upside down”.
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Source: Gazeta
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