Researchers have zoomed in on the area surrounding the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy, and made a fascinating discovery: a structure of "strange filaments" driving a cycle of gas emissions and replenishment.
As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the international team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Chilean desert to produce high-resolution observations of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), a region known for continuously cycling through copious amounts of dust and gas molecules.
However, how these cycles of formation and destruction actually function has largely remained a mystery. But thanks to ALMA's highly detailed map of the region, astronomers discovered a new type of filamentary structure, which reacts to shock waves rippling through the region.
"When we checked the ALMA images showing the outflows, we noticed these long and narrow filaments spatially offset from any star-forming regions," said Shanghai Jiao Tong University researcher and team lead Kai Yang in a statement that described the findings as vast "alien structures."
"Unlike any objects we know, these filaments really surprised us," he added. "Since then, we have been pondering what they are."
The team made the discovery by tracing silicon monoxide (SiO) and eight other molecules in the region, using ALMA. Interestingly, their velocities suggest they're not associated with dust emissions.
"Our research contributes to the fascinating Galactic Center landscape by uncovering these slim filaments as an important part of material circulation," said Shanghai Astronomical Observatory research professor and corresponding author Xing Lu. "We can envision these as space tornados: they are violent streams of gas, they dissipate shortly, and they distribute materials into the environment efficiently."
In their paper, the researchers suggest the filaments are "associated with parsec-scale shocks, likely arising from dynamic interactions between shock waves and molecular clouds."
According to their findings, these shocks bring these slim filaments to life, releasing SiO and several other complex organic molecules, including methanol, into the CMZ.
They then dissipate, allowing molecules to freeze back into dust grains, restarting the cycle.
The researchers are hoping that future ALMA observations could shed more light on the process to hone in on these filaments' origins.
"We speculate that these slim filaments represent a distinct class from the dense gas filaments typically observed in nearby molecular clouds, and they may result from interactions between shocks and molecular clouds," the paper reads.
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