The European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope has detected a large wave-like movement in the Milky Way galaxy.
According to information provided by the European Space Agency, the wave emanates from the center of the galaxy and extends a distance of 30,000 to 65,000 light-years from the core. Considering that the diameter of the Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light-years, this phenomenon encompasses a significant portion of the galactic disk.
This wave causes vertical oscillations of stars, moving them up and down relative to the plane of the galaxy, similar to ripples on the surface of water. The discovery was made by a team of astronomers led by Eloisa Poggio from the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy, who studied young giant stars and Cepheids—variable stars with predictable brightness variations.
The data collected by the Gaia telescope not only show the location of stars in the wave but also their dynamics. The vertical movements of the stars deviate from their current positions, corresponding to the characteristics of wave motion. This can be compared to a "wave" in the stands of a stadium, where at one point spectators stand up, at another they sit down, and at a third they prepare to rise.
Researchers suggest that this wave-like movement involves not only stars but also gas from the galactic disk. Stars formed from this gas may retain its motion.
The cause of the wave's emergence has not yet been established. One hypothesis suggests that it may have arisen from a past collision of the Milky Way with a dwarf galaxy, but this requires further investigation.
Astronomers are also considering the possibility of a connection between this structure and the Radcliffe wave, a smaller wave-like formation about 9,000 light-years long, located approximately 500 light-years from the Sun. The question of the relationship between these two phenomena remains open.
In the future, the fourth data release from the Gaia telescope is expected, which will provide more accurate information about the position and movement of stars, allowing for a deeper exploration of the characteristics of the galaxy.
It is known that astronomers have been studying the rotation of stars around the core of the Milky Way for about a hundred years. Since the 1950s, it has been established that the galactic disk is not perfectly flat but has a warped shape. In 2020, Gaia recorded a slow oscillation of this disk, resembling the motion of a spinning top.
