A group of scientists has discovered a huge gas filament extending through the Milky Way.
The huge filament of space gas is so large that, upon the discovery, the scientists were not certain what they were initially observing. Their research will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, you can access it in preprint here.
The filament, called 'Cattail', has a structure that remains unknown, according to Science Alert. Another possibility that Cattail forms part of the Milky Way's spiral arms.
The scientists from Nanjing University are puzzled as it is hard to determine whether Cattail form part of our galaxy or it is an entity of its own. This is partly because it is incredibly difficult to measure the distance between Earth and other cosmic objects within our galaxy.
The scientists said in the paper:
"...it is puzzling that the structure does not fully follow the warp of the galactic disk."
They added:
"While these questions remain open with the existing data, the observations provide new insights into our understanding of the galactic structure."
[h/t: Futurism]
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