Latest news with #ThavishaDharmawardena
Time of India
06-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
13.6 billion years stormy glow-in-the-dark massive cloud found lurking neat Earth: Can it impact life on Earth
The universe contains secrets, many of which have remained undetected despite decades of research and space missions through powerful telescopes. Astronomy constantly reminds us that what we know is only a fraction of what lies out there. May it be rogue planets drifting alone in the dark or entire galaxies concealed behind curtains of cosmic dust, it all seems like a mysterious sojourn. Occasionally, discoveries come not from the obvious but from what hides in plain sight. Such things, when something massive and cosmically ancient is suddenly found just next door, enhance our understanding of the cosmos even more. Astronomers have now come across another surprising object, which is a massive molecular cloud, and that too in Earth's cosmic backyard, which has somehow remained invisible until now. Named Eos, this newly discovered structure has opened a fresh window into star and planet formation , right at the edge of our local space environment. What have the scientists discovered? Scientists have identified a colossal molecular cloud which is located just 300 light-years away from Earth. Despite being so close, this massive structure went unnoticed until now due to its unusually low hydrogen content, which made it nearly invisible using traditional observation techniques. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Cost Of Amusement Park Equipment From Mexico Might Surprise You Amusement Park Equipment | search ads Click Here Undo The discovery which was published on April 28, 2025, in Nature Astronomy, was possible through data collected from the Korean satellite STSAT-1. It is equipped with a far-ultraviolet spectrograph (FIMS-SPEAR), and the satellite was used to search for ultraviolet emissions from molecular hydrogen, a component that usually glows under ultraviolet light. And it worked. A image provided by Thomas Müller (HdA/MPIA) and Thavisha Dharmawardena (NYU) shows, a newly discovered potentially star-forming cloud that is one of the largest structures in the sky. The cloud, named Eos, is chock-full of molecular hydrogen and possibly rife with star-forming potential in the future. (Thomas Müller (HdA/MPIA) and Thavisha Dharmawardena (NYU) via The New York Times) -- NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY WITH NYT STORY SCI COSMIC CLOUD BY KATRINA MILLER FOR MAY 5, 2025. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED. -- 'This is the first-ever molecular cloud discovered by looking for far-ultraviolet emission of molecular hydrogen directly,' said lead author Blakesley Burkhart from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences in New Jersey. 'The data showed glowing hydrogen molecules detected via fluorescence in the far ultraviolet.' According to Burkhart, "This cloud is literally glowing in the dark. It was kind of like just waiting to be explored. This opens up new possibilities for studying the molecular universe", as reported by Nature Astronomy, 2025. What is special about this cloud? What makes Eos especially interesting isn't just its proximity, but its huge size and structure. Weighing in at 3,400 times the mass of the Sun, Eos is one of the largest single formations ever seen in space. If visible to the naked eye, it would stretch across the sky like 40 full moons lined up side by side. Shaped like a crescent, it sits delicately at the boundary of a massive cavity surrounding our solar system, known as the Local Bubble. What is a molecular cloud? Molecular clouds like Eos are stellar nurseries. They consist mostly of hydrogen gas and cosmic dust, which are the raw ingredients for star and planet formation. These clouds act as cradles of creation in the universe. But until now, the processes within them, especially at the early stages, have remained largely a mystery. "When we look through our telescopes, we catch whole solar systems in the act of forming, but we don't know in detail how that happens," Burkhart explained. "Our discovery of Eos is exciting because we can now directly measure how molecular clouds are forming and dissociating, and how a galaxy begins to transform interstellar gas and dust into stars and planets." Eos gives a rare chance to observe these foundational cosmic processes in real-time and with clarity. Scientists believe the cloud has been slowly forming on the edge of the Local Bubble, a 1,000-light-year-wide region of hot, low-density gas that our Sun currently resides in. And while Eos is stable now, it won't last forever, and it is expected to dissipate within the next six million years. Researchers say that the material has traveled through time for 13.6 billion years, dating all the way back to the Big Bang itself. This makes the cloud not only a massive structure but also a cosmic time capsule composed of some of the oldest matter in existence.
Scientific American
30-04-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
Giant, Glowing Gas Cloud Discovered Just 300 Light-Years Away
The surprise discovery of a huge cloud of molecular gas — the stuff that forms stars — just 300 light-years away is opening up new ways to study the conditions that enable star birth. Stars form from collapsing clouds of molecular gas. We see this in the likes of the Orion Nebula, which gets energized by hot ultraviolet radiation of the young stars born within. However, finding molecular clouds before they begin producing stars is more difficult. Such clouds are predominantly made from molecular hydrogen gas, which, when it isn't being energized by starlight, is very faint — almost invisible. (Atomic hydrogen, on the other hand, is easily detectable by radio telescopes). Astronomers usually use radio telescopes to detect carbon monoxide, which is available in much lower quantities in molecular clouds, as a proxy. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. But what about the clouds without much carbon monoxide? Astronomers led by Blakesley Burkhart of Rutgers University–New Brunswick in New Jersey and Thavisha Dharmawardena of New York University, have pioneered an entirely new way of seeing the invisible. Using far-ultraviolet data from the Korean STSAT-1 satellite, they directly detected molecules of hydrogen fluorescing. "This is the first-ever molecular cloud discovered by looking for far-ultraviolet emission of molecular hydrogen directly," Burkhart said in a statement. "This cloud is literally glowing in the dark." The cloud is roughly crescent-shaped and sits on the edge of the Local Bubble, which is a volume of space where the interstellar medium is more rarefied than its surroundings, perhaps having been emptied by the shockwaves of hundreds of ancient supernovas. The sun and our solar system are passing through the Local Bubble, and have been doing so for the past five million years or so. The cloud, named Eos after the goddess of Greek mythology who signified the dawn, contains approximately 3,400 solar masses worth of gas. It's also depleted in carbon monoxide, which is why it had gone undetected by conventional means. Eos is predicted to disperse, or photodissociate, as a result of background photons impacting the cloud's molecules, in about 5.7 million years' time. This is too soon for it to begin forming stars, unless there is some other trigger that advances things, such as the gravitational disturbance of another passing cloud. Intriguingly, the average star-formation rate in our sun's neighborhood has been calculated at 200 solar masses per million years. Eos is losing mass to the wider interstellar medium at a rate of 600 solar masses per million years, three times the rate at which molecular gas is converted into stars. Therefore, this dispersion of molecular clouds as a result of photodissociation from light emitted by nearby stars seems to act as a feedback mechanism to regulate the rate of star formation, Burkhart's team believes. This is useful information for telling us more about the conditions needed to enable star formation in other, more distant clouds. "When we look through our telescopes, we catch whole solar systems in the act of forming, but we don't know in detail how that happens," said Burkhart. "Our discovery of Eos is exciting because we can now directly measure how molecular clouds are forming and dissociating, and how a galaxy begins to transform interstellar gas and dust into stars and planets." And the discovery of other, similar clouds could be just on the horizon. "The use of the far-ultraviolet fluorescence emission technique could rewrite our understanding of the interstellar medium, uncovering hidden clouds across the galaxy and even out to the furthest detectable limits of cosmic dawn," said Dharmawardena. Eos may not see the dawn of new stars, but its existence is testament to a greater dawn, going all the way back to near the beginning of the universe, in which stars have brought daylight to a dark cosmos. The findings were published on April 28 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
