Research Suggests That Our Galaxy Isn’t Very Well Distributed

Our galaxy is not as well-blended as scientists occasionally think, according to brand-new research.

That new study mainly focuses on the distribution of what astronomers consider metals– which is genuinely just every component besides hydrogen and helium, even when these elements are gases. In the new paper, researchers utilized the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile to outline the metal in dust throughout the Milky Way to improve models explaining the galaxy’s past.

” Initially, when the Milky Way was created, over 10 billion years ago, it had zero metals,” Annalisa De Cia, an astronomer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland as well as lead author on the new research, stated. “The stars progressively supplemented the environment with the metals they generated.”

That enrichment happens because, deep inside a star’s core, atoms collide with each other to gradually develop increasingly heavy kinds of matter, right up with iron. Not all stars blow up when the materials that fuel the process end. However, the stars that do explode expel all those metals out into their cosmic neighborhoods, where, theoretically, the steels can blend in with the rest of our galaxy.

Traditionally, scientific models have presumed that the blending process is pretty efficient, according to the statement. The brand-new observations, which targeted dust near 25 distinct stars, suggest that could not be the case and that, instead, there are glaring local differences in metal levels.

According to researchers, they might need to reassess their understanding of the Milky Way’s history.

The study is outlined in a paper published Wednesday (Sept. 8) in the journal Nature.

Originally published on Space.com. Read the original article.