Scientists Discover Massive Molecular Cloud Close To Earth (cnn.com) 39
An invisible molecular cloud that could shed light on how stars and planets form has been detected surprisingly close to Earth. From a report: Named Eos after the Greek goddess of the dawn, the cloud of gas would appear huge in the night sky if visible to the naked eye. It measures roughly 40 moons in width and has a weight about 3,400 times the mass of the sun, researchers reported in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
"In astronomy, seeing the previously unseen usually means peering deeper with ever more sensitive telescopes -- detecting those smaller planets ... those more distant galaxies," said study coauthor Thomas Haworth, an astrophysicist at Queen Mary University of London. "This thing was pretty much in our cosmic backyard, and we've just missed it," he added. Molecular clouds are composed of gas and dust from which hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules can form. Dense clumps within these clouds can collapse to form young stars. The article clarifies that Eos is 300 light-years away, which to be sure, is closer than any of the molecular clouds that we've known about previously.
"In astronomy, seeing the previously unseen usually means peering deeper with ever more sensitive telescopes -- detecting those smaller planets ... those more distant galaxies," said study coauthor Thomas Haworth, an astrophysicist at Queen Mary University of London. "This thing was pretty much in our cosmic backyard, and we've just missed it," he added. Molecular clouds are composed of gas and dust from which hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules can form. Dense clumps within these clouds can collapse to form young stars. The article clarifies that Eos is 300 light-years away, which to be sure, is closer than any of the molecular clouds that we've known about previously.
A weight about 3,400 times the mass of the sun (Score:1)
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Hey!
Why are you fat shaming, bruh?
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not adding up (Score:1)
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Re: not adding up (Score:3)
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How is it also close to earth if it's not located in our solar system?
You had time to submit this question, but not to read the summary?
Re: You had time to submit this question (Score:2)
Welcome to the intertubes!
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Re:not adding up (Score:4, Insightful)
Forget it, Jake (Score:2)
It's Slashdot.
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You really need increase your input buffers.
gee something is missing (Score:2)
this space intentionally left blank
Re: gee something is missing (Score:2)
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I'm still unhappy that show got cancelled.
I've all but given up on new shows, and I know I'm not the only one. These days, I'm more likely to not even start watching a new show until it's at least in its second season for two reasons. First, a disproportionate percentage of the shows get cancelled, so why bother investing the effort into watching it just to be annoyed? Second, much of the new cinema model seems to be to do maybe 8-10 shows a season, wait two years, and then roll out another 8-10 shows. For example, Stranger Things [imdb.com]. That show's four
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Re: gee something is missing (Score:2)
Let's hope it doesn't move (Score:3)
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I think modern astronomical observations have pretty much disproved most of Fred Hoyle's theories
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Which means he'll always be in the text books as a classic example that people can be right in one field, and wrong in another. Doubling his importance.
The Greek Goddess, Cloud of Gas. (Score:2)
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It's a Mutara class, so shields would be useless.
Space Snot (Score:2)
I think it's space snot from a sick black hole that sneezed out some dark matter. We need some space-sized fingers to roll it into a ball and flick it across the universe.
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Sounds like you're describing The Great Green Arkleseizure, which in turn awaits the coming of the Great White Handkerchief.
What a tease (Score:3)
What a tease. The cloud is "close to Earth", "40 moons in width".
Oh, it's 300 light-years away.
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and "an invisible ... cloud that could shed light"
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So it was out of focus? They looked right through it.
So it's (Score:2)
Dark Matter
Galactic Current Sheet? (Score:2)
Isn't the Galactic Current Sheet much closer?
Astronomers have been observing micronovas as the stars get coated with dust and then burp as the solar systems pass through it.
Ours seems to oscillate through it every 6000 years or so. Effects last about a week per ancient accounts.
Ground all the things, y'all.
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There's a heliospheric current sheet [wikipedia.org] - but at about 0.7 Earth diameters, transiting through that would take around 5 minutes. A galactic-size equivalent would indeed be bigger, but for the Earth to pass through it every "6000 years", it would have to have quite a convoluted shape, since the various estimates I've seen for the Earth's oscillations above/ below the plane of the di
How close? (Score:2)
Someone farted... (Score:2)
...in our general direction :-p
Don't Compare These Units (Score:1)
"has a weight about 3,400 times the mass of the sun"
I don't believe it's reasonable to compare weight & mass. Weight depends on gravity; mass doesn't.