The Milky Way Has a Mysterious ‘Broken Bone’

If you look astatine nan Milky Way done a powerful telescope, you’ll announcement that adjacent to nan halfway of nan postulation location are elongated filaments that look to outline its spiral shape. Scientists person a nickname for these structures: “galactic bones.” Recently, astronomers recovered that 1 of nan Milky Way’s bones is “fractured,” and they judge they’ve now recovered a imaginable culprit: a neutron prima that whitethorn person collided pinch it.

According to NASA, these bones are immense elongated formations of energized particles that spiral on magnetic fields moving done nan galaxy. The particles merchandise power waves, and truthful are detectable utilizing power telescopes.

Scientists person recovered respective specified bones successful nan galaxy, but 1 of nan astir striking is called G359.13142-0.20005, besides known arsenic “the Snake.” It is simply a 230-light-year-long filament that appears to person a fracture. It is besides 1 of nan brightest. One of nan first explanations was that immoderate arsenic yet undetected assemblage had disturbed nan filament.

A study by Harvard University, published successful nan diary Monthly Notice of nan Royal Astronomical Society, group retired to trial this hypothesis. The investigation squad progressive recovered signs of a pulsar, a neutron prima spinning astatine precocious speed, successful nan aforesaid region arsenic nan surgery bone. These stars are highly dense, and are nan mini remnants near aft nan detonation of a supermassive star.

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which orbits Earth, on pinch nan MeerKAT scope array successful South Africa and nan Very Large Array successful New Mexico—two systems that observe power waves—scientists recovered what look to beryllium traces of a pulsar successful nan filament. Based connected information from these observatories, they estimate that this pulsar impacted nan bony astatine a velocity of betwixt 1,609,000 and 3,218,000 kilometers per hour. The suspected collision is thought to person distorted nan magnetic section of nan bone, causing its power awesome to deform.

In nan supra image provided by NASA, nan Snake tin beryllium seen, and location is simply a assemblage that appears to beryllium interacting pinch nan structure, successful nan mediate of its length. It is perchance nan aforementioned neutron star.

Pulsars are replacement versions of a neutron prima where, successful summation to being compact objects, they rotate astatine precocious velocities and nutrient beardown magnetic fields. At nan infinitesimal location is nary instrumentality that tin spot them straight owed to their size and distance, but power telescopes tin observe nan electromagnetic waves they emit and perceive them by converting these into sound.

This communicative primitively appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.