Yahoo – AFP,
27 Feb 2015
 |
Photo
released on February 2, 2015 by the European Space Agency shows the
central
parts of the Milky Way (AFP Photo/Vvv Consortium/D. Minniti)
|
Paris (AFP)
- Brazilian astronomers said Friday they had found two star clusters forming in
a remote part of our Milky Way galaxy where such a thing was previously thought
impossible.
Seen from
above, the Milky Way has arms of stars, gas and dust flailing out in a spiral
shape from the centre.
From the
side, it resembles a flat disk with a big bulge in the middle -- it has been
likened to two fried eggs stuck together back-to-back.
Stars
normally form inside clumps of gas in so-called giant molecular clouds (GMCs),
found in the inner part of the galactic disk, said a statement from Britain's
Royal Astronomical Society, which published the findings in its Monthly
Notices.
Each of
these clouds contains several gas clumps, which means that most stars, possibly
all of them, are created together in clusters.
Using
NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope, a team led
by Denilso Camargo of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto
Alegre found GMCs far outside the central galaxy -- seen from the side they lay
at distances thousands of light years above and below the Milky Way's disk.
And not
only that, one of these remote clouds "unexpectedly" contained two
star clusters, said the statement.
"This
is the first time astronomers have found stars being born in such a remote
location".
The two
clusters, named Camargo 438 and 439, lie in a cloud named HRK 81.4-77.8.
Estimated
to be about two million years old, the cloud lies 16,000 light years
"beneath" the galactic disk -- "an enormous distance away from
the usual regions of star formation".
"Our
work shows that the space around the Galaxy is a lot less empty than we
thought," said Camargo.
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