Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Apr 4, 2006 21:27:37 GMT -6
Astronomers find alcohol cloud spanning 288 billion miles
Astronomers based at Jodrell Bank Observatory have discovered a giant bridge of methyl alcohol, spanning approximately 288 billion miles, wrapped around a stellar nursery. The gas cloud could help our understanding of how the most massive stars in our galaxy are formed.
“Although it is exciting to discover a cloud of alcohol almost 300 billion miles across, unfortunately methanol, unlike its chemical cousin ethanol, is not suitable for human consumption!”
The new observations were taken with the UK's MERLIN radio telescopes, which have recently been upgraded. The team studied an area called W3(OH), a region in our galaxy where stars are being formed by the gravitational collapse of a cloud of gas and dust. The observations have revealed giant filaments of gas that are emitting as 'masers' (molecules in the gas are amplifying and emitting beams of microwave radiation in much the same way as a laser emits beams of light).
The filaments of masing gas form giant bridges between maser 'spots' in W3(OH) that had been observed previously. The largest of these maser filaments is 288 billion miles (463 billion km) long. Observations show that the entire gas cloud appears to be rotating as a disc around a central star, in a similar manner to the accretion discs in which planets form around young stars. The maser filaments occur at shock boundaries where large regions of gas are colliding.
Full story here: www.physorg.com/news63346824.html
==========
I wonder I could make a space Martini if I scooped some up!...
