Astronomers researching a galaxy cluster came across something they had never seen before. Astronomers were astonished when they saw the river of stars consisting of disintegrating galaxy debris…
A remarkable river of stars flowing through intergalactic space has been found in a galaxy cluster approximately 300 million light-years from Earth. The formation, called the giant hair stream, is the longest river ever seen and the only one of its kind seen outside the galaxy.
DISCOVERED BY ACCIDENT
Javier Roman, an observational astrophysicist at the University of Groningen and the University of La Laguna, stated that their paths crossed with the giant stream by chance.
The stellar streams so common in the Milky Way Galaxy are predicted to consist of the fragmented debris of dense globular star clusters torn apart by the Milky Way’s tidal forces.
Roman and his colleagues used the 0.7-meter Jeanne Rich Telescope and the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope to search for faint structures within the Coma Cluster, which contains thousands of recorded galaxies. They aimed to study galactic halos formed by dark matter surrounding the scattered, spherical regions of rare stars and the crowded planes of galaxies.
THE RESULT IS QUITE AMAZING
The data they obtained surprised them. This was not a galaxy, but a long and vast belt of stars flowing through clusters of galaxies. This belt was quite different from the thin threads that form the cosmic web that binds galaxies together in clusters. Not only did it bear no resemblance to the stellar streams in the Milky Way, but it also had a spectacular scale.
Although they are large and appear calm, galaxy clusters are gravitationally complex structures, and the massive celestial bodies within them push and pull on each other in all directions. It is quite surprising that a star stream can survive in such an area for a long time.
Having run several simulations, the researchers found that although rare, such streams could be created within a galaxy cluster by a dwarf galaxy being torn apart by the gravity of larger galaxies. In cosmic terms, the current is not expected to continue for a long time.
2023-12-13 18:36:00
#river #stars #form #sky #place #balcony #astronomers #watching #amazement
