For over a decade, astronomers have been baffled by ghost stars in the Milky Way. Bryan Rees, Manchester’s PhD student, discovered that these planetary nebulae were aligned ten years earlier in our galaxy bulge. Since the discovery, the reasoning for their strange alignment has been unexplainable. Now, though, we may be one step closer to solving this mystery.
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According to a statement, new data gathered by the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope in Chile, as well as data from the Hubble Space Telescope, has helped push a new study, which is published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Not only has the new research confirmed the alignment, but it may have also found the explanation behind their strange alignment.
These ghost stars or planetary Nebulae are clouds of gas that stars expel as they near the end of their life. These ejected clouds are basically the ghosts of their dying stars, and they create some mesmerizing sights in the cosmos. It is interesting to note that a group of ghost stars near the Milky Way’s galactic bulge seem to follow a path aligned almost parallel with the Milky Way’s galactic plane.
What’s intriguing about this new research is that Shuyu Tan, a student at the University of Hong Kong, and other researchers have discovered that this alignment is only present in ghost stars with a close stellar companion. The alignment of planetary nebulae that do not have these companion stars is different. It’s therefore likely that the alignment has something to do with the companion stars.
Of course, the significance of this research really lies in learning exactly what causes the alignment and whether or not it’s something we’ll see elsewhere, too. So far, they have confirmed over 136 planetary nebulae in the galaxy bulge, which is the thickest section of the Milky Way. The close binary systems that are responsible for this alignment could also have formed with orbits on the same plane.
The post Scientists one step closer to understanding unexplainable ghost stars in the Milky Way appeared first on BGR.
