Astrophysicists have discovered a new area of the Milky Way filled with bright, hot blue stars that are about to explode.
The team discovered a special area called Arrow Cepheus by mapping the most detailed, star-filled spiral arm in the Milky Way with the European Aerospace Agency (ESA) Gaia Telescope. Located between the arm of Orion and in the constellation Perseus, it is the belt between two spiral arms filled with a giant star three times the size of the Sun and is blue due to the scorching heat.
Astronomers call the giant blue OB star because of the wavelength of the blue light they emit. They are the largest and rarest, hottest and most fleeting stars in the entire galaxy. An intense nuclear reaction takes place inside the nucleus, making them 6 times hotter than the Sun. Their life cycle ends with an extremely powerful stellar explosion called a supernova, sending the heavy elements necessary for complex life into the galaxy.
“OB stars are very rare, in a galaxy of 400 billion stars there may be less than 200,000 OB stars,” study co-author Michelangelo Pantaleoni González told the Spanish Center for Astronomical Biology ( CAB). “Since they are responsible for the creation of many heavy elements, they are considered sources of chemical enrichment in the galaxy. It’s thanks to stars like these that died long ago, the geological chemistry of their planets. We’re pretty complicated for biochemistry to come. “According to the team, Cepheus is the most active and active region in the galaxy.
González et al. Created a star map by measuring the distance between the star and the Earth, using a technique called stellar parallax. By comparing the position of the star, observing from different directions as the Earth revolves around the Sun, astronomers can calculate the distance to the star. Using this technique, along with data from the Gaia Telescope, the team mapped the star in many previously empty areas.
Scientists have shown that the new region is part of a spiraling galactic disc made up mostly of Milky Way matter, not a random arrangement of stars. They do this by observing that the stars are constantly moving in the same direction. They also suggest that examining the location of the star bridge just above the galactic disk could provide clues to the Milky Way’s past.
The next step for the team is to add OB stars to a more accurate map, which helps us better understand the structure of the Milky Way. They published their results on March 19 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
