The Milky Manner Has a Mysterious ‘Broken Bone’

If you happen to look on the Milky Manner by way of a robust telescope, you’ll discover that near the middle of the galaxy there are elongated filaments that appear to stipulate its spiral form. Scientists have a nickname for these buildings: “galactic bones.” Not too long ago, astronomers discovered that one of many Milky Manner’s bones is “fractured,” they usually consider they’ve now discovered a doable offender: a neutron star which will have collided with it.

In accordance with NASA, these bones are large elongated formations of energized particles that spiral alongside magnetic fields operating by way of the galaxy. The particles launch radio waves, and so are detectable utilizing radio telescopes.

Scientists have discovered a number of such bones within the galaxy, however some of the hanging is known as G359.13142-0.20005, also called “the Snake.” It’s a 230-light-year-long filament that seems to have a fracture. It is usually one of many brightest. One of many first explanations was that some as but undetected physique had disturbed the filament.

A research by Harvard College, revealed within the journal Month-to-month Discover of the Royal Astronomical Society, got down to take a look at this speculation. The analysis group concerned discovered indicators of a pulsar, a neutron star spinning at excessive pace, in the identical area because the damaged bone. These stars are extraordinarily dense, and are the small remnants left after the explosion of a supermassive star.

Utilizing NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which orbits Earth, together with the MeerKAT telescope array in South Africa and the Very Massive Array in New Mexico—two programs that detect radio waves—scientists discovered what look like traces of a pulsar within the filament. Primarily based on information from these observatories, they estimate that this pulsar impacted the bone at a pace of between 1,609,000 and three,218,000 kilometers per hour. The suspected collision is assumed to have distorted the magnetic discipline of the bone, inflicting its radio sign to deform.

Within the above picture offered by NASA, the Snake might be seen, and there’s a physique that seems to be interacting with the construction, in the midst of its size. It’s probably the aforementioned neutron star.

Pulsars are different variations of a neutron star the place, along with being compact objects, they rotate at excessive velocities and produce robust magnetic fields. In the intervening time there isn’t a instrument that may see them straight on account of their measurement and distance, however radio telescopes can detect the electromagnetic waves they emit and listen to them by changing these into sound.

This story initially appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.