Space telescope makes Milky Way finds

PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A European space mission has seen previously undiscovered islands of star formation and mysterious microwave emissions in our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers say.

The findings of the Planck space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation, will give scientists new data to help understand the secrets of our galaxy, a NASA release said Monday.

"The images reveal two exciting aspects of the galaxy in which we live," said Planck scientist Krzysztof M. Gorski from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "They show a haze around the center of the galaxy, and cold gas where we never saw it before."

"The haze comes from the region surrounding the center of our galaxy and looks like a form of light energy produced when electrons accelerate through magnetic fields," Davide Pietrobon, another JPL Planck scientist, said.

"We're puzzled, though, because this haze is brighter at shorter wavelengths than similar light emitted elsewhere in the galaxy," Gorski said.

Scientists say they are unsure about the source of the haze, although supernovae, galactic winds or even annihilation of dark-matter particles have been proposed.

Planck also detected new areas of cold gas, predominantly hydrogen, where new stars are thought to be forming, scientists said.