NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered a few blooming stars in the barren territories of the Milky Way while exploring its "countryside".
The Milky Way is known to be most crowded with stars at its core. However, while exploring the "countryside" of the galaxy, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope came across some blooming stars in the barren territories of the Milky Way. The images taken from the telescope are part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (Glimpse 360) project, which is a mission that maps the celestial topography of the Milky Way. This map will be available to the public later this year.
The Earth's solar system is located about two-thirds of the way out from the Milky Way's center. Spitzer's infrared observations are allowing researchers to map the shape of the galaxy.
"We sometimes call this flyover country," said Barbara Whitney, an astronomer from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who uses Spitzer to study young stars. "We are finding all sorts of new star formation in the lesser-known areas at the outer edges of the galaxy."
This mission will also help scientists discover sites of new stars, says Whitney. In fact, an area near Canis Major with 30 or more young stars that are in the early phase in their lives has already been spotted. Officials also state that the Spitzer can be used to carefully determine the distances to stars in the galaxy's hinterlands.
"With Spitzer, we can see out to the edge of the galaxy better than before," said Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin, who presented the results Wednesday at the 222nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Indianapolis. "We are hoping this will yield some new surprises."
