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Astronomers Find the Biggest Structure in the Milky Way: Filament of Hydrogen 3,900 Light-Years Long - SciTechDaily
Jan 22, 2022 2 mins, 22 secs
While hydrogen remains the most pervasive element in the Universe, it can be difficult to detect individual clouds of hydrogen gas in the interstellar medium (ISM).

An international team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy (MPIA) recently noticed a massive filament of atomic hydrogen gas in our galaxy.

Using the VLA’s centimeter-wave radio dishes, this project studies molecular cloud formation, the conversion of atomic to molecular hydrogen, the galaxy’s magnetic field, and other questions related to the ISM and star formation.

The ultimate purpose is to determine how the two most-common hydrogen isotopes converge to create dense clouds that rise to new stars.

The isotopes include atomic hydrogen (H), composed of one proton, one electron, and no neutrons, and molecular hydrogen (H2) is composed of two hydrogen atoms held together by a covalent bond.

The box to the left of the middle marks the location of the “Maggie” filament.

It shows the distribution of atomic hydrogen.

The colors indicate different velocities of the gas.

The process of how atomic hydrogen transitions to molecular hydrogen is still largely unknown, which made this extraordinarily long filament an especially exciting find.

Whereas the largest known clouds of molecular gas typically measure around 800 light-years in length, Maggie measures 3,900 light-years long and 130 light-years wide.

The observations also allowed us to determine the velocity of the hydrogen gas.

This allowed us to show that the velocities along the filament barely differ.”.

The team’s analysis showed that matter in the filament had a mean velocity of 54 km/s-1, which they determined mainly by measuring it against the rotation of the Milky Way disk.

“The observations also allowed us to determine the velocity of the hydrogen gas,” said Henrik Beuther, the head of THOR and a co-author on the study.

“This allowed us to show that the velocities along the filament barely differ.”.

This false-color image shows the distribution of atomic hydrogen measured at a wavelength of 21 cm.

The red dashed line traces the “Maggie” filament.

When he observed the filament, he named it after the longest river in his native Colombia: the Río Magdalena (Anglicized: Margaret, or “Maggie”).

Based on previously published data, the team also estimated that Maggie contains 8% molecular hydrogen by a mass fraction.

On closer inspection, the team noticed that the gas converges at various points along the filament, which led them to conclude that the hydrogen gas accumulates into large clouds at those locationsD

They further speculate that atomic gas will gradually condense into a molecular form in those environments.

For more on this research, see Massive Filament Structure – 3900 Light-Years Long – Discovered in the Milky WayD

Reference: “The “Maggie” filament: Physical properties of a giant atomic cloud” by J.

January 20, 2022

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