Massive invisible Galactic structure discovered, by accident, with Green Bank Telescope in West Virg

[mountaineer]

Massive invisible Galactic structure discovered, by accident, with Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia
by: Bryan Hughes   
Posted: Jul 6, 2021 / 06:58 AM EDT   / Updated: Jul 6, 2021 / 07:49 AM EDT   

GREENBANK, WV (WOWK) – The astronomers at the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) discovered a massive, previously unknown structure in the Milky Way Galaxy that is quite eye opening.

The first discovery happened with a smaller telescope but because it was so unexpected that they had to bring in the big one, the 20-meter telescope, to confirm what they were observing.

Sometimes, in our galaxy, not everything is visible to the naked eye and that’s what is happening here. This discovery is being seen through the use of radio spectrum. Essentially, the astronomers are able to see things with the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. Since the GBT has a high level of sensitivity, it was able to detect this extremely large structure that’s made up of molecular gas, versus a physical moon or planet. Right now, the people doing the research believe the structure extends far into the distant parts of the Milky Way Galaxy. ...

WOWK, Charleston, WV

[mountaineer]

Room, Space Journal of Asgardia
21 June 2021 News
Astronomers using GBT discover previously unknown huge galactic structure
by Kerry Hebden

A massive, previously unknown structure in our galaxy has been found by astronomers using the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope – the Green Bank Telescope (GBT); the discovery was so unexpected, it has taken years and many additional observations to confirm the data.

The structure in question is a thick disk of “dark” molecular gas which extends far into the outskirts of the Milky Way and hints of its existence first came to light in 2005, when astronomers found an excess of cosmic rays of unknown origin emanating from the disk of our Galaxy.

“Dark” gas refers to molecules that are difficult to detect in the interstellar medium (ISM) - the vast, cold regions of space between stars. The most prominent is molecular hydrogen (H2).

Despite being the most abundant molecule in the Universe, H2 evades detection easily in these regions as neutral hydrogen atoms (those that have not lost an electron) at temperatures typical of the gas in interstellar space neither emit nor absorb light in the visible part of the spectrum.  ...