A large galactic cloud that scientists call an “orphan cloud” or “lonely” has been discovered in an area of the cosmos called Abell 1367 and seems to have surprised the group responsible for its discovery since its size would be greater than that of the Milky Way .
A mysterious galactic cloud larger than the Milky Way has been discovered
The galactic cloud that has been found is filled with incandescent gas, with temperatures ranging between 10,000 and 10,000,000 degrees Kelvin , and a total mass of 10 billion times the mass of our Sun. In fact, it is larger than many small galaxies.
The cloud, present in an area of the cosmos called Abell 1367, was discovered by a group led by dr. Ming Sun , associate professor of physics at UAH. This area of the Universe, also called the Lion Cluster , contains about 70 galaxies and is about 300 million light years from Earth.
The cloud was detected using the European Space Agency (ESA) High Performance X-ray Spectroscopy ( XMM-Newton) mission, Europe’s largest X-ray space telescope. The data was also confirmed by the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope / Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (VLT / MUSE) and the Japanese Subaru optical telescope.
“ This is an exciting and surprising discovery. It shows that there are always new surprises. Apparently ESA agrees with our finding as it has been selected for official image release, which is done very selectively, ”said Dr Sun.
The cloud was d escovered in a galaxy cluster in which thousands of galaxies are bound together by a faint glowing gas , with temperatures of around 100 million degrees Kelvin. However, this particular cloud is not associated with any of them , but is in a “no man’s land” devoid of galaxies.
The cloud is believed to have originated in a large unknown galaxy in the cluster , but was literally ripped away from it due to the very high temperatures present and the different speeds of the two celestial bodies (about 50 times the orbital speed of the Earth). Around the sun).
The mysterious cloud would have survived for hundreds of millions of years after the disappearance of its host galaxy , perhaps thanks to its magnetic field, which could act as a ‘glue’ to hold the material together, suppressing unstable forces that would otherwise have made it dissipate.
