Scientists discover a huge 'extragalactic structure' behind the Milky Way

Astronomers have discovered a gigantic extragalactic structure hiding in an unknown region of space far beyond Milky Waycenter.

This imaginary region, known as the avoidance region, is an empty spot on our map of the universe, comprising between 10% and 20% of the night sky. The reason we can’t see it—at least with standard visible-light telescopes—is that the Milky Way’s bulging center obscures our view of it; The center of our galaxy is very dense with stars, dust, etc. issue This light is scattered or absorbed by the avoidance zone before reaching Earth telescopes.

However, researchers have had better luck in revealing the secrets of the region using telescopes that can detect them Infrared A type of energy invisible to the human eye, but powerful enough to shine through thick clouds of gas and dust. Infrared surveys of the avoidance zone have found evidence of thousands of individual galaxies shining through cosmic fog, although little is known about the large-scale structures that lie there.

Now, researchers have combined data from several infrared surveys to reveal the largest structure ever detected in the avoidance zone, according to a study published October 28 in the Preprint Database. arXiv.org. (This study has not yet been peer-reviewed, although it has been submitted for review in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics.)

Located about 3 billion light-years from Earth, the mysterious structure appears to be a large group of galaxies linked together by a common center of gravity. Using observations from the VVV survey — a survey that examines the Milky Way’s central bulge at infrared wavelengths using the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy in Chile — the study’s authors found evidence of at least 58 galaxies grouped together in a tiny piece of area of avoidance.

Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe. The largest known clusters contain hundreds of thousands of galaxies clustered together. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know how wide or massive the newly discovered mass is, given the vast distances and the myriad obstacles that exist between the cluster’s stars and Earth.

However, just revealing this huge object showed that the avoidance zone might not be as mysterious as previously thought. Future infrared studies – including possible observations by James Webb Space Telescopewhich has already used an infrared camera to capture a file The deepest picture of the universe So far – scientists should further help decipher the hidden secrets behind the bulge of the Milky Way.