The Sky Tonight

January 30, 2016

Giant gas cloud boomeranging back into Milky Way
Notre Dame IN (SPX) Jan 29, 2016
Since astronomers discovered the Smith Cloud, a giant gas cloud plummeting toward the Milky Way, they have been unable to determine its composition, which would hold clues as to its origin. University of Notre Dame astrophysicist Nicolas Lehner and his collaborators have now determined that the cloud contains elements similar to our sun, which means the cloud originated in the Milky Way's outer edges and not in intergalactic space as some have speculated. The Smith Cloud, discovered in the 1960s, ... read more

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