[Epoch Times, October 15, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Li Yan comprehensive report) Scientists have discovered a huge “galactic underworld” filled with the remains of ancient massive stars that have collapsed into black holes or neutron stars. As such, the researchers called the new discovery a “galactic cemetery.”
The new findings, published in the journal Royal Astronomical Society, reveal that the “graveyard” is so large that it is almost three times as tall as the Milky Way.
The remnants were once massive stars more than eight times the size of our sun, which burned up and collapsed into black holes or neutron stars, the study found.
“The dense remnants of these dead stars have a distribution and structure that is fundamentally different from the visible part of the Milky Way,” said lead author David Sweeney, a PhD student at the Sydney Institute of Astronomy.Click here to view related images.）
Sweeney and his team extrapolated the life cycles of these stars and used that information to create the first detailed map of where their remnants are located. The models they built show where these stars are born, where they die, and how they end up scattered throughout the galaxy, and even out of the galaxy.
Younger neutron stars and black holes are relatively easy for scientists to find, and older neutron stars are significantly harder to find, researchers say.
Study co-author Peter Tuthill, a professor at the Sydney Institute of Astronomy, said finding the stars was “like trying to find the graveyard of the mythical elephant”.
“The bones of these rare massive stars must be there, but they seem to be shrouded in mystery,” he said in a release. “The oldest neutron stars and black holes were when the Milky Way was younger and had different shapes. produced and then undergone complex changes spanning billions of years.”
Therefore, finding these stars by modeling has “always been a big task.”
A side view of the “Galactic Graveyard” shows that its center is larger than the entire Milky Way. Scientists say this is due to the energy created when a supernova explodes.
The energy is so powerful that “a staggering 30 percent” of the stars found in the “galactic underworld” are “completely ejected out of the galaxy,” Sweeney said.
“According to the statistics, the closest debris to us should be only 65 light-years away: from the perspective of the Milky Way, more or less in our backyard,” Tussle said.
“Now that we know where to look, we’re developing technology to hunt them,” Sweeney added. “I bet the ‘galactic underworld’ won’t be shrouded in mystery for long.”
Responsible editor: Li Yuan