ESA

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A visualization of the Radcliffe-Wave - One of the largest contiguous structures in the Milky Way

astronomers have discovered a giant structure in our galaxy, which are born out of many interrelated "nurseries" where stars.

The long, thin filament of gas is a whopping 9,000 light-years in length and 400 light years away.

It is only about 500 light years from our sun, which is relatively nearby in astronomical distances.

The Discovery came from the work of mounting a new map of the Milky Way .

An international team analyzed data from the European space telescope Gaia, which was launched in 2013.

The monolithic structure, as Radcliffe-Wave , in honor of the Harvard University

"What we observed the largest gas structure that we know of in The Galaxy , organized in a ring, but in a massive, Wave -shaped filaments," said co-author Joao Alves of the University of Vienna, Austria, and at Harvard.

It is the long, thin extensions of spiral galaxies, the them their name), the closest to our Solar System in the spiral arm (.

graphic: The Massive gas-filament lies on One of the spiral arms of the Milky Way in the vicinity of our Solar System

Gaia was launched with the intention to the precise measurement of position, distance and movement of stars in our galaxy.

the Team members used data from the European Space Agency telescope, together with other measurements to create a detailed 3D map of the interstellar matter in the Milky Way .

The results correctly, a prior look at this region of the Milky Way .

Many of the star-forming regions found in the Radcliffe Wave , which was previously Belt as a part of a structure called the Gould ' s in front of about 3000 light-years (20 trillion miles) wide.

Small, or too Far Away ???

First described in 1879, Gould belt has been held, from which new stars are regions are to be believed, is oriented to The Sun in a ring.

The new study in nature, the image is transformed into a 90-quadrillion-Kilometer-long, four-billion mile wide star-forming filament.

Co-author Prof Alyssa Goodman (Harvard, said: "We were completely realized, shocked as we are as long and straight, to the Radcliffe-Wave is looking down on you From Above in 3D. "

Esa 's Gaia telescope was added in 2013

you: "The Wave existence forces us rethink our understanding of the Milky Way 3D-structure. "

All The Stars in The Universe , including our sun, are formed when clouds of gas and dust undergo gravitational collapse.

has been, But you are working out, how much the mass of the clouds and how big they are, is difficult, because these things depend on how Far Away the clouds.

Co-author Douglas Finkbeiner said: "Studying stellar births is complicated by a lack of data. We risk getting The Details wrong, because, if you are confused about distance, they are confused about the size. "

The results will be presented on the

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Source of news: bbc.com