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A Gigantic Streamer of Hydrogen Gas is on a Collision Course with the Milky Way Galaxy
Magnetic ‘force field’ shields giant gas cloud during collision with Milky Way
Doom may be averted for the Smith Cloud, a gigantic streamer of hydrogen gas that is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered a magnetic field deep in the cloud’s interior, which may protect it during its meteoric plunge into the disk of our Galaxy
This discovery could help explain how so-called high velocity clouds (HVCs) remain mostly intact during their mergers with the disks of galaxies, where they would provide fresh fuel for a new generation of stars.
Currently, the Smith Cloud is hurtling toward the Milky Way at more than 150 miles per second.
When it does, astronomers believe, it will set off a spectacular burst of star formation. But first, it has to survive careening through the halo, or atmosphere, of hot ionized gas surrounding the Milky Way.
This is an artist’s impression of the Smith Cloud’s plunge into the disk of the Milky Way, which it’s destined to hit in approximately 30 million years. The cloud, seen in orange and yellow at bottom of the image, is actual data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). Credit: Bill Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
Phys.org
Read more here: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-magnetic-field-shields-giant-gas.html
