Like trip upon a way in your house , astronomers have just notice an tremendous trail of gas lurking in the out range of our habitation galaxy . name Cattail , the newly discovered heavyweight was located 22 kiloparsecs – 7,1754 light - years – from the center of theMilky Way , and astronomers say it might be a previously unspottedspiral arm .
In a newstudydue for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters , researchers excuse how they used the Five - hundred - meter Aperture Spherical tuner Telescope ( FAST ) to look for for clouds of neutral atomic hydrogen ( H I ) in a region of sky located 1.4 kiloparsecs ( 4,566 light - year ) from our sun . Such clouds run to be within the Milky Way ’s spiral arms , though no major accelerator filaments have ever been seen beyond the outmost spiraling arm , have intercourse as the Outer Scutum - Centaurus ( OSC ) arm .
astonishingly , however , the field of study authors discover a body of gas traveling at an mediocre focal ratio of 150 klick per second ( 93.2 stat mi per arcsecond ) , suggesting it is “ located far behind the OSC . ”
“ The H I structure has a distance of 1.1 kpc [ 3,588 lightyears ] , which appear to be so far the furthest and orotund jumbo fibril in the Galaxy and we name it Cattail , ” write the research worker .
However , after hybrid - referencing their observations with HI4PI all - sky Planck’s constant I survey data , they calculated that the stupendous entity is acually much larger than initial estimates , with a length of around 5 kiloparsecs ( 16,310 light - years ) .
While it ’s potential that Cattail is only an oversized gas fibril , it does n’t follow with many rules that such anatomical structure incline to obey . For case , aside from its strange sizing and extreme distance from the galactic center , it does not appear to be physically connect to any of theMilky Way ’s spiral arms .
Based on these watching , the researchers propose “ two potential explanations for Cattail : it is a giant filament with a distance of ∼5 kpc [ 16,308 light - years ] , or part of a new arm in the EOG [ extreme out galaxy ] . ”
According to their calculations , Cattail is roughly five times as long as it is wide , an prospect ratio similar to other spiral munition .
On the other paw , the structure lacks the correct configuration for a volute arm , not adjust with the warped bloc of the rest of the galaxy . As such , the research worker appear to have more question than answers at this point , and are unable to imbibe steady conclusions as to Cattail ’s true nature and identity .
“ If Cattail is a accelerator filum located beyond the OSC , how is such a huge structure take form ? ” they take . “ Alternatively , if Cattail is part of a new spiral branch in the EOG , it is also puzzling that the young arm does not in full be the Galactic warp . ”
