Scientists have discovered that a mysterious cluster of baby stars moves through our galaxy in a wavelike manner. The phenomenon, called the Radcliffe Wave, was discovered in 2018, but it was further data from 2022 that finally revealed in 3D how the structure moves through the Milky Way.
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Radcliffe Wave
The Radcliffe Wave was discovered in 2018 using data from the Gaia Space Telescope, a project that changed the way astronomers studied the three-dimensional properties of the Milky Way.
After putting together a 3D map, they published the results in 2020 and revealed that the structure is a 9,000-light-year-long chain of wavy gas clouds that gave rise to the star clusters around it. It is only 500 light years from our solar system.
One of the researchers described the formation as “the largest coherent structure we know of” and that it had been there all along, astronomers just couldn’t identify it because they couldn’t create 3D mapping before the Gaia mission.
But at the time, researchers didn’t have enough data to understand the wave in detail, such as how small stars moved through the galaxy in it.
Motion of waves and stars of galaxies
Recent data from the Gaia mission in 2022 made it possible to discover this.
Using the positions of the baby star clusters, scientists were able to figure out how the motion of the structure as a whole works: the Radcliffe wave not only looks like a wave, it also behaves like a wave.
For a place Eureka alert he likens the movement to the “ola” movement in a stadium, where the stars go up and down, creating a pattern that allows you to move through the Milky Way. They further explain that they return “down” due to the galaxy’s gravity.
How did the wave come about?
- There is no answer to that yet. Discovering how the wave behaves across the galaxy was the first (or perhaps second) step of research that allowed scientists to turn their attention to even more challenging questions, such as how it formed or why it moves the way it does;
- However, there are theories. One is that the wave-like motion could have been caused by supernovae (explosions of massive stars) disrupting the surrounding galaxy;
- Another theory revealed in an article published in the journal Natureis a clump of dark matter contributing to the change in ambient gravity and influencing the motion of the wave;
- In the publication itself, however, they have a reservation to this, stating that ordinary gravity (without dark matter) would be sufficient to move the wave;
- Additionally, they suggest that other Radcliffe wave-like structures may be widespread throughout the galaxy.
