The Milky Way has a mysterious “broken bone”

If you look As the Milky Way passes through powerful telescopes, you will notice that the elongated filaments near the center of the Milky Way seem to outline its spiral shape. Scientists have the nickname of these structures: “The Milky Way Bones”. Recently, astronomers discovered that one of the bones in the Milky Way was “fragmented” and they believed they had now discovered the possible culprit: the neutron star that might collide with it.

According to NASA, these bones are huge elongated formations of magnetic fields running along the Milky Way. Particles release radio waves, so they can be detected using radio telescopes.

Scientists have found several such bones in the Milky Way, but the most eye-catching bone is called G359.13142-0.20005, also known as “snake”. It’s a 230-liter long filament that seems to have a fracture. It is also one of the smartest. One of the first explanations is that some people have been disturbed by their undiscovered bodies.

A study from Harvard University published in the journal Monthly notice from the Royal Astronomical Societystart testing this hypothesis. The research team involved in the research team found signs of pulsars, a neutron star that rotates at high speeds, in the same area as the fractured area. These stars are very dense and are small remnants left behind by the superstar’s explosion.

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which rotates around the Earth along with the Meerkat telescope array in South Africa and the very large array in New Mexico, both systems can detect radio waves – Costerists have found traces of pulsars in the filament. Based on the data from these observations, they estimated that the pulsar affects the bones at a speed of 1,609,000 to 3,218,000 kilometers per hour. Suspicious collisions are believed to have distorted the magnetic field of the bone, causing its radio signal to deform.

In the image provided above by NASA, the snake can be seen and it seems to interact with the structure in the middle of its length. It may be the neutron star mentioned above.

Pulsars are alternative versions of neutron stars, and in addition to compact objects, they also rotate at high speeds and generate strong magnetic fields. Currently, due to their size and distance, there is no instrument that can see them directly, but radio telescopes can detect electromagnetic waves they emit and hear them by converting them into sound.

This story originally appeared in wired español and has been translated into Spanish.