Researchers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have discovered traces of a powerful outbreak in the Milky Way that occurred about a billion years ago. The event led to the explosion of hundreds of thousands of supernova stars and, as a result, the birth of a large number of new stars. This was reported by the press service of the observatory. According to Russian astrophysicists, this discovery will allow us to learn more about the evolution of our Galaxy.

The discovery was made with the help of a very large telescope mounted in the Chilean high mountains of Atacama. The telescope is the largest ground-based complex for the study of space, consisting of instruments for observing waves of different ranges - from near ultraviolet to medium infrared.

The center of the Milky Way is very dusty, and to see the processes taking place in this region, special devices are used that record waves not in the optical but in the infrared spectrum, a leading researcher at the P.K. State Astronomical Institute said in an interview with RT. Sternberg Moscow State University Alexander Gusev.

“The European colleagues did the work at the highest level, and with the help of unique equipment they managed to get the image of the center of the Milky Way in very good resolution,” said Gusev.

According to Russian astrophysicist, the discovery of ESO allows you to better learn the history of the Milky Way.

“In many galaxies, the bulk of the stars formed at the initial stage, that is, in the first 5 billion years. Then, in some galaxies, secondary flares of star formation also occurred. In our Galaxy, the bulk of the stars formed in the period from 13.5 to 8 billion years ago. Whereas the outbreak discovered by European scientists belongs to the relatively late period of the evolution of the Milky Way. It happened about 1 billion years ago and was quite sharp, as it lasted only 100 million years, ”the scientist said.

  • The image of the central part of the Galaxy, obtained with the help of a very large telescope
  • © ESO / Nogueras-Lara et al

According to Gusev, the data obtained by European scientists on the time, duration and power of the event have yet to be analyzed by theoretical astrophysicists studying the evolution of our Galaxy.

“Now it is necessary to explain the cause of the outburst of star formation that occurred after calm billions of years. It can be assumed that a galaxy satellite or a gas cloud could fall on the galaxy. We will wait for further research results, ”said the astrophysicist.

According to the scientist, now the results obtained by the Very Large Telescope will be used by Russian astrophysicists in their work.

“I think Russian scientists will certainly be interested in this problem. And they will give us some kind of result, ”summed up Gusev.