The W4 Chimney
A
huge chimney venting hot clouds of gas out from the
plane of our Milky Way Galaxy
has recently been imaged in
radio waves.
The
Canadian Galactic Plane Survey team used an array of
radio telescopes to survey an
ionized gas region known as W4.
At the bottom of W4 and in the center of the
above image is a very young
open cluster of stars known as OCl 352.
Research continues into how these stars created the W4 superbubble.
Possible explanations include
supernova explosions or strong
stellar winds from these stars.
It does appear clear, however, that hot gas is
expanding outwards,
being funneled by relatively cool and dense gas in a
chimney-like fashion.
The W4 chimney, which lies 6500
light-years from Earth and
spans 250 light-years across,
is visible as the comparatively dark area extending toward the top of the
above image.