The discovery that worries scientists and changes the facts

One A cloud of opaque dust Shaped like a box located at the center of the Milky Way, this has long been a challenge for us embarrassment to Scientists With notes that reveal new things the details About its composition is increasing mystery – perhaps upending what is known about how Stars are forming.

The nebula is nicknamed “The Brick” for her Visual opacity And Its rectangular appearanceand was previously estimated to contain More than 100,000 times the mass of the Sun. Such a dense mass should produce massive new stars, based on researchers’ current understanding of star formation.

However, something like this not good.

James Webb “looked” at the nebula

Bricks are largely inert. And the Final notesConducted using the James Webb Space Telescope, it did not reveal any hidden young stars, The Guardian reports. CNN.

New Web Data Instead, they reveal that Brick is not just a gas. They’re also full of glacial carbon monoxide — much more than previously thought — according to a study published Monday in 2019. Astrophysical Journal. There is more ice forming deeper into the nebula.

The results could have radical implications How will scientists analyze this field in the future?. The presence of more carbon monoxide ice inside BRIC could dramatically change the way researchers study and measure the dark clouds at the center of the Milky Way.

“We are closer to understanding exactly what is happening in BRIC and where the cluster is locatedsaid astronomer Adam Ginsberg of the University of Florida, lead author of the study. “But we opened more questions than we closed».

Among those questions: Why and where does carbon monoxide freeze and turn into ice?

Other mysteries surrounding this area also remain unanswered: Why don’t we see new stars forming? Couldn’t bricks be as dense as scientists previously thought? What are the strange ridge-like and thread-like features that appear within the bricks?

“We need to do more research to find out Really sure what’s going onGinsberg said. “I would say we are in a hypothesis-making phase, not a conclusion-making phase,” he added.

What James Webb revealed

Ginsberg and colleagues Researchersincluding graduate students at the University of Florida, obtained this new Webb data for the first time in September 2022.

It was a critical moment. As the strongest Space telescope Absolutely, Webb can provide unprecedented insights into this brick. But soon after, Ginsberg and his team They found that the data needed a lot of work. The Webb telescope orients itself using a map, determining which direction to point by indicating its position relative to known stars.

The problem is that “there are so many stars in the center of the galaxy that it gets confusing,” Ginsberg said. So the researchers had to spend months cleaning the data, and aligning it correctly with the existing data Sky maps.

Then, when they looked at Brick, they found that the images from Webb were showing the wrong color.

“Pretty much all the stars came out blueGinsberg said, prompting researchers to wonder if there was something wrong with the data.

But he said it turns out the problem lies in their assumptions. Scientists did not expect there to be so much carbon monoxide ice, which is what caused the color changeaccording to the study.

Dr Natalie Butterfield, associate scientist at the Milky Way Centre, said the discovery of the presence of ice could have wide-ranging implications for all types of research at the Milky Way Centre. National Radio Astronomy Observatorywho did not participate in the study.

Butterfield said her own research — which includes a study Supernova and radiation between stellar systems – could be changed forever by understanding the presence of carbon monoxide ice. It could change the way scientists estimate the mass of all the clouds at the center of the galaxy.

Why does carbon monoxide matter?

There are many puzzling things about this whole thing Carbon monoxide ice. For example, the area is very warm – approx 60 Kelvin (minus 351.67 degrees Fahrenheit) – while carbon monoxide usually freezes at a temperature of 20 Kelvin.

It could be powder The inside of the brick is much colder than the gas, causing the carbon monoxide around the dust particles to freeze. Or, Ginsberg said, the water could freeze, trapping carbon monoxide inside.

The answer matters.

All the ice an area like the Breck can provide Scientists New information about our solar system – and even our planet.

Ice and water on Earth, for example, Maybe they got here via comets. So, where ice is found in the universe and how it forms could help researchers understand where these comets come from and how to collect the material they deposited.