Astronomers Detected a Huge New Structure in The Milky Way, And Don't Know What It Is

[Judi Lynn]

Artist's impression of the Milky Way galaxy. (Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)

MICHELLE STARR6 AUGUST 2021

When you're swimming in a large body of water, calculating its volume or discerning the locations of distant floating objects isn't easy. The same is true for our galaxy.

From our position inside the Milky Way, much of its size, contents, and three-dimensional structure is really tricky to figure out. There's a lot that eludes us, or is impossible to calculate; even so, every now and again, a discovery comes along that makes you wonder, how in the heck did we miss that?!

A newly discovered structure named the Cattail is just such a wonder. It's a long curl of gas that's so large, astronomers aren't sure whether or not it might actually be part of a galactic spiral arm that we never noticed until now.

Even if it isn't the sign of an unmapped spiral arm, the Cattail may be the largest filament of gas in our galaxy discovered to date. It's been described in a paper accepted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters, available on preprint server arXiv.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-structure-in-the-milky-way-is-so-big-we-aren-t-sure-it-isn-t-a-spiral-arm



Big Bend National Park, in Texas.

[llashram]

1. my hope

anyway... It's so huge

[Martin68]

6. Dude, it's a cloud of gas. A kosmic phart!

[llashram]

7. dude,

I'm talking about the Universe. What's with the fixation on farts? Have a good one.

[Martin68]

9. I wouldn't consider it a fixation to observe that the universe was responsible for a large cloud of

gas. I did not mean to offend you. My apologies.

[llashram]

10. no harm, no foul

[Eyeball_Kid]

16. You mean... it isn't a fart? n/t

[LudwigPastorius]

2. My God, it's full of cats!

[burrowowl]

3. LOL!

[CMFunk]

4. Kirk found it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture

[KG]

13. Vger?

[DENVERPOPS]

14. LOL

It's the Borg???? Resistance is Futile...............

[milestogo]

5. Probably garbage from planet earth.

[KG]

8. Dyson sphere?

[Inkey]

11. I am so glad...

That I have been able to have seen the Milky Way on a dark clear night several times in my life; hope to see it a few times more.
The artist conception does give a better perspective of our galaxy. The sheer awesome mass, energy and potential that we might have other planets with life and intelligence neighboring us is so tantalizing.
Ahh the friscalating panopticon we inhabit !

[keithbvadu2]

15. "friscalating panopticon" - Had to look them both up.

"friscalating panopticon" - Had to look them both up.

Now, if I can remember them long enough, I can impress someone with them.

But my literary circle will need the explanations.

If I can remember them long enough.

[Eyeball_Kid]

17. I like those Hubble photos..

.. of small groups of "spirals" as small on the image plate as stars, but factually are huge galaxies themselves. It gives a hint of the enormity of the universe.

If we only consider the current knowledge of the laws of physics, we certainly are very much alone in the universe. When we look into the skies at night, we're actually viewing ancient history. We're often seeing what stars looked like millions, even billions of years ago. They are only in the "present" because we see them in the present, not because they actually exist in the present. The speed of light can only do so much.

[marble falls]

12. It's listed as an easy commute to LA ...