Gas cloud to collide with Milky Way
Posted: Tue, Jan 15, 2008, 6:38 AM ET (1138 GMT)
A massive cloud of gas is on a collision course with the Milky Way galaxy and will trigger a new round of star formation when it arrives, astronomers reported last week. The cloud, called Smith's Cloud, is 11,000 light-years long and 2,500 light-years wide, and is on a path that will collide with our galaxy in 20 to 40 million years, according to research by NRAO astronomers. That collision will trigger a round of star formation, much of it supergiant stars that will live for only a few million years before going supernova. The region of the collision is about 90 degrees ahead of the Sun in the plane of the galaxy.
A massive cloud of gas is on a collision course with the Milky Way galaxy and will trigger a new round of star formation when it arrives, astronomers reported last week. The cloud, called Smith's Cloud, is 11,000 light-years long and 2,500 light-years wide, and is on a path that will collide with our galaxy in 20 to 40 million years, according to research by NRAO astronomers. That collision will trigger a round of star formation, much of it supergiant stars that will live for only a few million years before going supernova. The region of the collision is about 90 degrees ahead of the Sun in the plane of the galaxy.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
ViaSat taps Boeing for next-generation broadband satellite
Posted: Fri, May 17 9:00 AM ET (1300 GMT) Reaction wheel fails on Kepler, putting mission's future in question
Posted: Thu, May 16 6:50 AM ET (1050 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Saturday, May 18
Mars Rover Opportunity Examines Clay Clues in Rock
NASA/JPL — 9:44 am ET (1344 GMT) 7 lessons from Commander Hadfield
Ottawa Citizen — 9:33 am ET (1333 GMT) How the Maple Leafs broke an astronaut’s hockey-loving heart
Canadian Press — 9:29 am ET (1329 GMT) So, is astronaut Chris Hadfield interested in politics?
Canadian Press — 9:28 am ET (1328 GMT) The science non-fiction of Commander Chris Hadfield’s ‘Space Oddity’
OUPblog — 9:28 am ET (1328 GMT) |
