‘This cloud is literally glowing in the dark’

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Discovering a surprise to a huge cloud of molecular gas-things that make up stars-only 300 light years open new ways to study the conditions that allow the birth of stars.

Stars A form of clouds from molecular gas. We see this in proverbs Orion NebulaAnd, which is activated by hot UV rays of young stars who were born inside. However, the molecular clouds were found before They start producing stars more difficult.

These clouds are often made of molecular hydrogen gas, which, when it is not activated by stars, is very pale – almost invisible. (Atomic hydrogen, on the other hand, can be easily discovered by radio telescopes). Astronomers usually use radio telescopes to detect carbon monoxide, which is available in much lower quantities in molecular clouds, as a substitute.

But what about clouds without a lot of carbon monoxide?

Astronomers, led by Blixley Burkehardt of the University of Rutgers – New Bronzwek in New Jersey and Tafisha Darmaradna from New York University, is a completely new way to see what is invisible. Using far-fetched data from the Korean STSAT-1 satellite, they directly discovered hydrogen fluids molecules.

Burkart said in a statement. “This cloud literally glows in the dark.”

The cloud is almost in the shape of a crescent and sits on the edge Local bubbleIt is a size of space where the means between the stars is more rare than its surroundings, and it may have been emptied through shock waves for hundreds of ancient spur. The sun and our solar system pass through the local bubble, and it has done this over the past five million years or so.

The cloud, called EOS after the goddess of Greek myths that indicate dawn, contains about 3400 Solar masses Gas value. It is also exhausted in the first carbon monoxide, which is why it has not been discovered by traditional means.

EOS, or lightly, is expected to be dispersed, as a result of the background photons that affect the cloud molecules, in about 5.7 million years. It is too early to start the formation of stars, unless there are some other operators that offer things, such as an attractive disorder for another transient cloud. Interestingly, the average stars formation rate in our Sun neighborhood has been calculated in 200 solar masses per million years. EOS loses the mass to broader The middle of the stars At a rate of 600 solar masses per million years, three times the rate in which molecular gas is converted into stars. Therefore, this molecular clouds dispersion as a result of light light from the light from the nearby stars appears to be the mechanism of reactions to regulate the rate of stars formation, as the Burguhart team believes. This is useful information to tell us more about the conditions needed to enable the formation of stars in other distant clouds.

“When we look through telescopes, we all pick up Solar energy systems “In the act of formation, but we do not know in detail how this happens,” said Burkhardt. Galaxy It begins to convert gas between stars and dust to stars and planets. “

Related stories:

– The 3D map reveals the local bubble of our solar system for its “escape tunnel”

– Scientists discover the most common external planets in the universe than we thought

– The sun may spit particles that create water on the moon

And the discovery of other similar clouds can only be on the horizon.

Darmagina said: “The use of a long -standing painful emissions technology can rewrite our understanding of the medium between the stars, and to detect hidden clouds across the galaxy and even to the maximum detection of cosmic dawn.”

EOS may not see the dawn of the new stars, but its presence is evidence of the greatest dawn, as it returns to the beginning of the universe, where the stars brought daylight to the dark universe.

The results were published on April 28 in the magazine Nature astronomy.