Using the VISTA telescope , astronomers in Chile have learn a antecedently undetected band of young principal veil away behind wooden-headed cloud of rubble in the central swelling of the Milky Way .
Sometimes observance top to some unlooked-for discoveries , as in the instance of this study .
Our Solar System is parked inside the Milky Way , which presents a challenge for astronomers trying to study its forcible details . We ’re stuck on the inside of an target that stretches for 100,000 unclouded - class and is filled will some 100 billion stars . What ’s more , there are component of the Milky Way , like the galactic bulge , that are obscured by monolithic plume of dust , make observations even more difficult .
This is where theVISTA telescopeat the Parnal Observatory in Chile can avail . It was plan to study the Milky Way ’s more elusive and distant features by snapping wide - field , high - resolution images at infrared wavelength . By using this tool , a research squad lead by Istvan Dékány of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile was able to discover a component of our galaxy that had never been seen before .
By map out the locations of a grade of asterisk that vary in brightness , astronomers in Chile have detected a antecedently unseen magnetic disc of new stars buried behind dense dust clouds in the Milky Way ’s central bulge . The red dots represent the newly discovered stars , while the white-livered star represents our position in the galax . ( Image and caption credit : ESO / Microsoft WorldWide Telescope )
Using data pull in by theVista Variables in the Vía Láctea Survey ( VVV)from 2010 to 2014 , the astronomers found 655 candidate variable stars of a type calledCepheids . These stars are unequaled in that they enlarge and get at regular intervals . Their smartness can change dramatically in just a few day or calendar month .
Cepheids come in two class , one much younger than the other . Of the 655 fall upon , the astronomers identified 35 belong to a sub - group of young bright star topology known asclassical Cepheids . These object are qualitatively different than their older counterparts found in the central bump of the Milky Way .
“ All of the 35 classical Cepheids find are less than 100 million class old , ” explain study conscientious objector - writer Dante Minniti in a release . “ The unseasoned Cepheid may even be only around 25 million year old , although we can not exclude the potential front of even younger and promising Cepheids . ”
This would incriminate that there ’s a previously unconfirmed , continuous supply of newly spring whiz in the central region of the Milky Way . What ’s more , by map these Classical Cepheids , the squad foreground an whole new feature of our galaxy : a thin disk of young star that stretch across the galactic bulge .
Future investigations will seek to determine whether these Cepheids were born close to their current locating , or whether they migrate inwards .
[ ESO ]
AstronomyMilky WayScienceSpaceStar organization
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