A newly developed map released in March shows the central engine of the Milky Way, our home galaxy.
The map shows the central region of our Milky Way, where dust starts to form the essential building blocks for planets, stars and even life as we know it, according to analysis by Space. These building blocks are believed to be assembled in this central region, helped by the relationship between magnetic fields and other cold dust structures.
The findings of the four-year research project between NASA and Villanova University, are significant as they detail the complex processes between magnetic fields and the clouds of dust that gave birth to us. “The center of the Milky Way and most of the space between stars is filled with a lot of dust, and this is important for our galaxy’s life cycle,” research leader David Chuss told the outlet. “What we looked at was light emitted from these cool dust grains produced by heavy elements forged in stars and dispersed when those stars die and explode.”
Scientists reveal never-before-seen map of the Milky Way’s central engine (image) https://t.co/aGXnIYrALb pic.twitter.com/ieP0circbL
— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) March 15, 2024
The data collected for the mission was gathered using a decommissioned spaceplane, Forbes noted. (RELATED: NASA Scientists Rejoice After Finding 1-Inch Tomato ‘Lost In Space’… Wait. What?)
But the most startling aspect of the image is that it represents an area estimated to be 500 light-years across, a number so enormous I can’t actually find a calculator that will write it out properly. The research team was also hit with another major mystery from space: “Figure out how the field that we see in the radiowaves across these large organized filaments may relate to the rest of the dynamics of the center of the Milky Way,” Chuss added.
Chuss and his team have at least two more years of analysis ahead of them to answer some of the most pressing questions from our home galaxy. Who knows what they might find!