{"id":15285,"date":"2025-05-26T20:50:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T20:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15285"},"modified":"2025-05-26T20:50:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T20:50:48","slug":"the-milky-way-has-a-mysterious-broken-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15285","title":{"rendered":"The Milky Way Has a Mysterious \u2018Broken Bone\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


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If you look<\/span> at the Milky Way<\/a> through a powerful telescope, you\u2019ll notice that close to the center of the galaxy there are elongated filaments that seem to outline its spiral shape. Scientists have a nickname for these structures: \u201cgalactic bones.\u201d Recently, astronomers found that one of the Milky Way\u2019s bones is \u201cfractured,\u201d and they believe they\u2019ve now found a possible culprit: a neutron star that may have collided with it.<\/p>\n

According to NASA<\/a>, these bones are huge elongated formations of energized particles that spiral along magnetic fields running through the galaxy. The particles release radio waves, and so are detectable using radio telescopes.<\/p>\n

Scientists have found several such bones in the galaxy, but one of the most striking is called G359.13142-0.20005, also known as \u201cthe Snake.\u201d It is a 230-light-year-long filament that appears to have a fracture. It is also one of the brightest. One of the first explanations was that some as yet undetected body had disturbed the filament.<\/p>\n

A study by Harvard University, published in the journal Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society<\/em><\/a>, set out to test this hypothesis. The research team involved found signs of a pulsar, a neutron star spinning at high speed, in the same region as the broken bone. These stars are extremely dense, and are the small remnants left after the explosion of a supermassive star.<\/p>\n

Using NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/a>, which orbits Earth, along with the MeerKAT<\/a> telescope array in South Africa and the Very Large Array<\/a> in New Mexico\u2014two systems that detect radio waves\u2014scientists found what appear to be traces of a pulsar in the filament. Based on data from these observatories, they estimate that this pulsar impacted the bone at a speed of between 1,609,000 and 3,218,000 kilometers per hour. The suspected collision is thought to have distorted the magnetic field of the bone, causing its radio signal to deform.<\/p>\n

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