PASADENA, CALIF -- Blustery filaments of hot gas fill a vast region of interstellar space near the center of our galaxy, and researchers have for a decade or so wondered what creates the gas. One explanation is that exploding stars called supernovae are the source.
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But a new study, presented here today at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, suggests an alternative that might account for some of the gas.
A cauldron of 60-million degree gas was found to surround a tight cluster of young hot stars, called the Arches cluster, which sits about 100 light-years away from the galactic center. The cluster is home to 150 newborn stars that are up to 20 times more massive than our Sun.
All the stars in the Arches cluster lie within one light-year of each other -- an incredibly dense grouping. By comparison, the nearest star to our Sun is 4.3 light-years away. Like stampeding soccer fans, the emissions from these energetic stars simply have nowhere to go.
A wind of gas was found to stream outward from the stars at some 1,000 kilometers per second, said Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, a Northwestern University professor who led the study using a new Chandra X-ray Observatory image.
Because the stars are huddled so close together, "the winds are running against each other as if they are hitting a wall," Yusef-Zadeh said. This heats the gas further, produces X-rays, and pushes the radiation outward as much as 30 light-years beyond the cluster, according to the study.
"This supports theoretical predictions that stellar winds from massive stars can collide with each other and generate very hot gas," Yusef-Zadeh said, adding that it might also compliment supernovae as a source for the gas.
The study has not been confirmed by other research.
Scientists have long known that massive young stars emit large quantities of X-rays. And in distant starburst galaxies, which are stellar nurseries on a much larger scale than the Arches cluster, massive hot bubbles of gas have been spotted escaping into intergalactic space. A study into one of these starburst galaxies, called NGC 5253, was
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