Two astronomers – with the help of Twitter – have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that an enormous X-shaped structure made of stars lies within the central bulge of the Milky Way galaxy. Infrared light allows astronomers to see the structures of galaxies in spite of dust, which blocks crucial details in visible light.
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In 2010, Lang used data from two infrared surveys carried out by WISE that mapped the entire Milky Way. Astronomers have aurged regarding the previous research that pointed the indirect existence of the X-shaped structure.
The astronomer that originated the tweet was trying to create an interactive map of distant galaxies.
‘Ness saw the tweet and immediately recognized the importance of the X-shaped structure, ‘ said Mr Lang.
“An X-structure only happens where you have an isolated bulge formation, not a bulge forming from lots of galaxies smashing together”, Davies said. “We see the boxy shape, and the X within it, clearly in the WISE image, which demonstrates that internal formation processes have driven the bulge formation”, explained Melissa Ness, one of the two researchers from Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany who were leading the study.
The center of the Milky Way again came to attention when WISE galactic maps were posted on Twitter a year ago and allowed the astronomers to view the structure of galaxy thoroughly again.
What caught the attention of Twitter was a three-dimensional bulge in the middle of the Milky Way’s flat structure.
“The bulge is a key signature of formation of the Milky Way galaxy”, Ness said.
This has proven that the technology forms a bond between scientists and astronomers worldwide and it has already paved the way for future collaborations to help mankind further understand the galaxy and the universe.
Milky Way is barred spiral galaxy with a center filled with hundreds of billions of stars and these stars are estimated to be 100,000 light years in diameter.
In these kinds of galaxies, when the thin disk of gas and stars is sufficiently massive, a “stellar bar” may form, consisting of stars moving in a box-shaped orbit around the centre. Our own Milky Way has a bar, as do almost two-thirds of all nearby disk galaxies. This bar can become unstable over time, crumpling inward and creating a bulge.
A galaxy contains stars, gas and dust.
Previous computer models and observations of our own galaxy have suggested that the X-shaped structure existed. “I think it has provided pretty good evidence for the existence of the X-shaped structure”, said Dustin Lang, from the University of Toronto. The Milky Way’s central bulge appears somewhat like an American football when viewed from Earth, and it is within this feature that the “X” shaped star formation was discovered.
An enhanced, close-up view centred on the Milky Way Galaxy’s bulge and the blue-tinted “X”.
“You can clearly see the structure is there, they haven’t done anything particularly insane with the data to get it”, he said.
The current study supports the latter model which predicts the box or peanut-shaped bulge and the galactic X.
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Additional research is ongoing to analyse the dynamics and properties of the stars in the Milky Way’s bulge.
