Scientists explore the center of the Milky Way and reveal the chemistry of the stars

Paris. For the first time, scientists have been able to observe in detail the central area of ​​the Milky Way, where star formation could provide keys to understanding the origins of the universe.

It is a gigantic image that extends a region of 650 light years. Clouds of gas and dust surround the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. One light year is equivalent to almost 9.7 billion kilometers.

In it, “a complex network of cosmic gas filaments with unprecedented detail” can be seen, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said in a statement.

This image is composed of a set of observations captured by the 66 millimeter and submillimeter antennas that make up ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array), a giant radio telescope located in the Atacama Desert, in Chile, and managed by ESO, the United States and Japan.

At the center of the image is the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), a place “of extremes, invisible to our eyes, but now revealed in extraordinary detail,” explained Ashley Barnes, an ESO astronomer.

It is “the only galactic nucleus close enough to Earth for us to study it in such detail,” he added.

Likewise, Barnes highlights that “ALMA’s upcoming broadband sensitivity upgrade, together with ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, will soon allow us to delve even deeper into this region, resolving finer structures, tracking more complex chemistries and exploring the interaction between stars, gas and black holes with unprecedented clarity.”

“The CMZ is home to some of the most massive stars known in our galaxy, many of which live fast and die young, ending their lives in powerful supernova and even hypernova explosions,” explained Steve Longmore, professor of astrophysics at Liverpool John Moores University, in the United Kingdom, and a member of the ACES project, which seeks to study the CMZ.

“By studying how stars are born in the CMZ, we can also get a clearer picture of how galaxies developed and evolved,” he added.

Longmore also explained that the study of this environment could shed light on the evolution of galaxies in general, since the region “shares many characteristics with the galaxies of the early universe, where stars formed in chaotic and extreme environments.”

Stars form when cold molecular gas flows along filaments that feed clumps of matter.

It is known how this process occurs on the outskirts of the Milky Way, but does the same thing happen in the central region of our galaxy, where the events are much more extreme?

According to the ESO statement, the study “unravels the intricate chemistry of CMZ, detecting dozens of different molecules, from simple ones, such as silicon monoxide, to more complex organic ones, such as methanol, acetone or ethanol.”

“We think the region shares many characteristics with galaxies in the early universe, where stars formed in chaotic and extreme environments,” Longmore said.

The results are presented in five articles accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.