A unique cosmic cloud discovered: bigger than the Milky Way

A huge cloud of glowing gas hangs in space between a group of galaxies.

Scientists have one in intergalactic space huge gas cloud Discover. It’s bigger than that Milky Way Surprisingly Hundreds of millions of years Old. This baffled astronomers, because it should have already resolved.

Because such a cloud usually melts little by little if it is not held together by the gravitational force of a galaxy. But it is practically in the no man’s land, that is, in the space between several galaxies, where there is no force of attraction. So it was so far Only a cosmic cloud of this kind, can be detected.

More precisely, the cosmic cloud exists Muhammad Awad Abdullah Al-Harbi 1367 or Leo Gallenhoven, in the constellation Leo and 300 million light years away from the earth. Abel 1367 is a group at least 72 galaxiesKnit by gravity.

10 billion times larger than the sun

Previously 2017 He had a research team with the Japanese Subaru telescope Evidence was found on the cloud. Now the scientists act The University of Alabama at Huntsville In addition to the European Space Agency XMN-Newton X-ray telescope and Multi-Unit Spectral Explorer (MUSE) added. Using X-ray radiation from the cloud, they discovered that it was much larger than previously assumed. with a block like that 10 billion times that of the sun The cosmic cloud is larger than the Milky Way.

The origin of the cloud seemed to baffle researchers. It does not appear to be related to the galactic cluster. with a temperature between 10000 and 10 million degrees The cloud is much cooler 100 million degrees Hot intergalactic space.

separate from galactic home

Ming SunThe study’s co-author suggested that the cloud came from one of the galaxies. . high speed 3.6 million to 7.2 million km/h, with which a galaxy flies through space, can cause the resulting dynamic pressure to separate the cloud from the galaxy. “Once the cloud separates from its original galaxy, it’s cold and evaporates into the space between the cluster of galaxies, like ice that melts in summer,” Sun says. in the current situation.

But scientists couldn’t find a galaxy that recently lost a lot of gas, and they can’t explain why the cloud lasts so long. They figured it out magnetic field The cloud should hold together. The study was published in the specialized journal Monthly notifications of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The research team is now searching for the main cloud galaxy. The sheer mass and path of gas the cloud leaves should help with this. The galaxy we’re looking at must be massive and massive as well.