Astronomers have discovered 8,292 stellar currents in our galaxy. Instead of star clusters, streams create linear patterns.
Each stream is named Theia for the Greek goddess of vision and celestial light.
When astronauts used data collected by the European Space Agency Gaia space telescope to study Theia 456, they found that all 468 stars were born in this orbit at the same time. This long stream of stars also moves in the same direction together over the skies.
The discovery was unveiled Friday at the 237th meeting of the Astronomical Society of America, which occurs almost exclusively as a result of the pandemic.
“Most stellar colds are created together,” study author Jeff Andrews, a graduate of Northwestern University, said in a statement. “What’s exciting about Theia 456 is that it’s not a small bunch of stars together. It’s long and stretched out. There are very few streams nearby, young and so scattered so wide. “
Stars are often formed in spherical groups, called clusters. More recent data, however, have revealed other patterns, such as those long currents, which astronomers believe occurred when lumps of stars were torn apart or stretched out.
“As we have begun to become more advanced in our instrument, our technology and our ability to mine data, we have discovered that stars are more in structure than nuclei,” Andrews said. often creating these currents across the sky. Although we have known about them for decades, we are beginning to look for hidden ones. “
Theia 456 stretches for 570 light-years over the Milky Way.
This stellar stream was hidden from astronauts for a long time because it lives in the galactic plane, where the current will be easily covered by the 400 billion stars of the Milky Way. The galactic plane is where most of the galaxy mass is.
Stellar currents have typically been detected outside our galaxy with telescopes pointing away from the Milky Way.
“We tend to focus our telescopes in other directions because it’s easier to find things,” Andrews said. “Now we’re starting to find those currents in the constellation itself. It is like finding a needle in a haystack. Or, in this case, looking for an ocean climb. “
The stars inside Theia 456 have the same shape because they all contain about the same amount of iron. This suggests that the stars were formed together about 100 million years ago.
Astronomers also looked at how the brightness of these stars has changed over time and concluded that the stars are spinning at equal rates. This is further proof that they are of the same age.
“If you know how the stars move, you can keep an eye back to find out where the stars came from,” Andrews said. “As we put the clock back, the stars came closer and closer together. So we think all of those stars were born together and have a common origin.”
Finding out more about the formation of stars in galleries could lead to a greater understanding of the universe and how it became filled with galaxies and stars.