According to astronomers, the largest object in the Milky Way is a massive filament of hydrogen gas named Maggie. Researchers said that investigating this object can help them better understand the nature of star formation.
Hydrogen gas is notably the simplest and most abundant element in the universe. It has many functions, from creating gas clouds to being fuel for star formation.
However, the largest hydrogen gas clouds only size up to 800 light-years. For reference, a single light-year is around 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers.
Maggie, in comparison, is approximately 3,900 light-years long and 130 light-years wide! This makes it five times larger than any discovered gas cloud.
Due to its sheer size, Maggie was named after Colombia's longest river, the Magdalena River. It is described as a massive flat disk that moves at a constant speed in the same direction.
This remarkable discovery was reported by researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy (MPIA) in Germany, and their findings were published in the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal.
MPIA press release: A gigantic lane made of raw material for new stars https://t.co/uZY4YZxA0o
— A&A journal (@AandA_journal) January 3, 2022
Article by Syed et al.: https://t.co/KMPDKip5uJ
Atomic Cloud Maggie: Milky Way's Largest Object
Researchers said they first spotted Maggie as a strange object on the other side of the Milky Way. They were shocked to discover it was almost entirely made up of atomic hydrogen gas. Typically, these hydrogen groupings are challenging to spot because they don't stand out on the interstellar medium (ISM).
However, Maggie is a little special. One researcher said that "the location of this filament has contributed to this success ... we don't yet know exactly how it got there. But the filament extends about 1,600 light-years below the Milky Way plane," per Space.
The researchers also noted that its unique location made it possible to study the radiation emanating from Maggie. "We look into the physical properties of the 'Maggie' filament, a large-scale filament found in H I emission at line-of-sight velocities," the experts said, via Brinkwire.
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Research on the Milky Way and Maggie
Following its initial discovery, astronomers used the HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the Milky Way (THOR) to investigate Maggie. They studied how far it stretches and the velocity of the hydrogen gas making it up. Researchers estimate that Maggie is around 55,000 light-years from Earth.
The researchers concluded in their paper that "while Maggie's origin remains unclear, we hypothesize that Maggie could be the first in a class of atomic clouds that are the precursors of giant molecular filaments." They also emphasized the need for more studies on the topic.
According to researchers, studying Maggie and other structures like it can help them better understand star formation. This is because hydrogen is an essential building block for stars.
The situation is still progressing, so researchers do not have all the answers to their questions yet. However, there might be more exciting discoveries about Maggie later this year.
