Milky Way Hydrogen Gas Clouds Reveal Clues About Galaxy Evolution
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 - 11:30
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers studying hydrogen gas clouds found in and above the Milky Way Galaxy have discovered that the clouds have preferred locations in and around the galaxy, a fact which has given astronomers a key clue about galaxy evolution. Astronomers studied gas clouds in two distinct regions of the Galaxy. The clouds they studied are between 400 and 15,000 light-years outside the disk-like plane of the Galaxy. The disk contains most of the Galaxy's stars and gas, and is surrounded by a "halo" of gas more distant than the clouds the astronomers studied. read more