The milky road has a mysterious “broken bone”

If you look In the Milky Way through a powerful telescope, you notice that there are elongated fibers near the center of the galaxy, which seem to outline its spiral shape. Scientists have a nickname for these structures: “Galactic bones”. Recently, astronomers have found that one of the milk bones is “fractionated”, and they believe that they have now found a possible culprit: a neutron star.

According to NASAThese bones are huge elongated formations of elevated particles that spiral along the magnetic fields running through the galaxy. The particles release radio waves, and therefore are detected using radio telescopes.

Scientists found several such bones in the galaxy, but one of the most striking is called G359.13142-0.20005, also known as “Snake”. It is a 230-year-old filament that seems to have a crack. It is also one of the brightest. One of the first explanations was that some of the undetected body disturbed the filament.

Study conducted by Harvard University, published in the journal Monthly notification of the Royal Astronomical SocietyI decided to test this hypothesis. The research team found signs of Pulsar, a neutron star rotating at high speed, in the same region as a broken bone. These stars are extremely dense and are compact residues left after the outbreak of the supermassive star.

Operate of NASA Chandra X -ray observatorywhich orbits the land with Meerkat Telescopes board in South Africa and Very large board In Nowy Mexico – two systems that detect radio waves – scientists found something in Filament that seems to be in Pulsar’s footsteps. Based on the data from these observatories, they estimate that this pulsar has affected bones at a speed of 1 609,000 to 3 218,000 kilometers per hour. It is believed that the suspicion of the collision distorted the magnetic field of the bones, causing deforming its radio signal.

In the above image provided by NASA, you can see, and there is a body that seems to affect the structure in the middle of its length. This is probably the said neutron star.

Pulsars are alternative versions of a neutron star, in which, in addition to being dense objects, they rotate with high speeds and produce mighty magnetic fields. At the moment there is no instrument that can see them directly because of their size and distance, but radio telescopes can detect electromagnetic waves that they emit and hear, transforming them into sound.

This story originally appeared Wired In Spanish and was translated from Spanish.