Research shows that our galaxy isn't exactly mixed, as scientists sometimes assume.
Remarkably, the new study focuses on what astronomers think of as "metals," and that the substances called "metals" are actually all but hydrogen and helium, even though these elements are sometimes gases. In the new study, the scientists used Hubble and Chile's Very Large Telescope to map the "metals" in the milky way's dust, hoping to improve models that describe the history of the Milky Way.
"Originally, when the Milky Way formed 10 billion years ago, 'metals' didn't exist. With the creation of "metal", the environment around the planet gradually enriched. Annalisa De Cia, an astronomer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and lead author of the new study, said in a statement.
The reason for this phenomenon is because at the core of a star, atoms collide with each other, slowly producing heavier types of matter all the way to the production of "metals." Not all stars will explode after the fuel is burned out, but those that will explode do throw all the resulting "metals" onto their "neighbors." Theoretically, "metal" could be mixed with the rest of the Milky Way.
Historically, based on the above statement, scientists would assume that the mixing process was very efficient when modeling. But according to new findings of dust near 25 different stars, this may not be the case. The content of the metal varies significantly locally.
As a result, the researchers say, scientists may need to re-evaluate their understanding of the galaxy's history. The study was published in the journal Nature.
The Milky Way is a galaxy that includes the solar system, and the name "Milky Way" depicts what the galaxy looks like on Earth — a hazy band of light seen in the night sky, formed by stars that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye alone. The word Milky Way is a Latin translation of lactera, derived from the Greek γαλακτικ κ κλο (galaktikos k k klos), which translates to "round like milk". Viewed from Earth, the Milky Way is banded because from the inside it is a disc-like structure. In 1610, Galileo Galilei used a telescope for the first time to break down a band of light into separate stars. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers believed that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the universe, and after the great controversy between astronomer Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis in 1920, Edwin Hubble's observations suggested that the Milky Way was just one of many galaxies.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated visible diameter of 100,000 to 200,000 light-years. Recent simulations suggest that a "disk of dark matter" contains a number of visible stars that may extend to a diameter of 2 million light-years. The Milky Way has several satellite galaxies that are part of the local group of galaxies. The local galaxy group is part of the VIrgo supercluster, and the Virgo supercluster pattern itself is part of the Laniakea supercluster.
It is estimated that the Milky Way contains between 100 billion and 400 billion stars and at least the same number of planets. The solar system is located about 27,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way, at the inner edge of the Orion Arm. The Orion Arm is one of a galaxy where gas and dust spiral together. Stars in the innermost range of 10,000 light-years form a bump and radiate one or more bar-shaped objects from the bulge.
At the center of the Milky Way is a strong source of electromagnetic emission known as Sagittarius A*. It is a supermassive black hole of about 4100 (±0.034) million times the mass of the Sun. Stars and gas far from the center of the Milky Way are moving at a speed of about 220 kilometers per second. The constant rotational velocity contradicts Kepler's laws of dynamics, suggesting that most of the Milky Way's mass (about 90 percent) is invisible to telescopes, emitting nor absorbing electromagnetic radiation. This invisible mass is called "dark matter." The rotation period with the Sun as the radius is about 240 million years. [17] The Milky Way as a whole moves at a speed of approximately 600 kilometers per second relative to the extragalactic reference system. The oldest stars in the Milky Way are almost as old as the universe itself, so they may have formed shortly after the Dark Ages of the Big Bang.
Related knowledge
The Milky Way Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy containing the Solar System. Diameters range from 100,000 to 180,000 light-years. It has about 100 billion to 400 billion stars and possibly 100 billion planets. The solar system is about 24,000 to 28,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way, at the inner edge of the spiral arm, known as the Orion Arm, which is dense with dense gas and dust. At the sun's position, the orbital period is about 240 million years.
BY: Meghan Bartels
FY: balancehorse
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