| Advertisement |
SANTIAGO, Chile, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The most studied galaxy in the universe still holds secrets. While analyzing streams of stellar data captured by the European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope, a team astronomers identified a never-before-seen component of the Milky Way.
Advertisement
"The central bulge of the Milky Way is thought to consist of vast numbers of old stars. But the VISTA data has revealed something new -- and very young by astronomical standards!" lead researcher Istvan Dekany, an astronomer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, said in a press release.
Inside the bulge, Dekany and his team found 655 potential variable stars known as Cepheids hiding in VISTA's data. Cepheids are pulsating stars that brighten and dim, brighten and dim -- each cycle lasting a few days. Brighter Cepheids have longer cycles, while dimmer Cepheids have shorter cycles.
During their analysis, astronomers realized they'd found two sets of Cepheids. Thirty-five of the stars turned out to be a subset of Cepheids called classical Cepheids. They are young and bright.
"All of the 35 classical Cepheids discovered are less than 100 million years old. The youngest Cepheid may even be only around 25 million years old, although we cannot exclude the possible presence of even younger and brighter Cepheids," said Dante Minniti, an astronomer at the Andres Bello National University in Santiago.
The mass of young Cepheids is proof, researchers say, that new stars continue to be born inside the bulge. But it wasn't the only evidence of youth. VISTA also revealed a thin disc of newly born stars stretching across the galactic bulge, previously hidden by thick clouds of dust.
"This study is a powerful demonstration of the unmatched capabilities of the VISTA telescope for probing extremely obscured galactic regions that cannot be reached by any other current or planned surveys," concluded Dekany.
The discovery is detailed in a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.
