The dark abyss of space is seemingly endless to explore. Countless celestial objects levitate in this dark ocean of space. Scientists and astronomers have sorted various objects into lists and categories for centuries. This time, however, a team of researchers discovered an object at the center of the Milky Way galaxy that does not fit into these categories. It is the only object of its kind, never seen before. Details of its discovery and analysis are published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The center of the Milky Way is teeming with billions of stars, tens of millions of gas masses, a supermassive black hole, stars in formation, and a vast graveyard of stellar debris. So this was the most likely place where they could discover an astronomical object. But what they finally observed amazed them.
The mysterious object was first detected when scientists observed the central molecular zone (CMZ), a special region in the galactic center known for its dense gas and star-forming regions. The object was found to be bubbling with cold dust and fast-moving gas traveling at nearly 112,000 miles per hour from a small region at the heart of our galaxy, according to the Daily Express. The temperature of the gas around the object was recorded at -436 degrees Fahrenheit, which is significantly lower than is typically seen in this region of the galaxy. Another strange behavior the object displayed was that it only emitted microwaves.
To understand the object, they compared it to previously known astronomical objects, such as a supernova or an evolved star. However, this object did not match the properties of any of the known celestial bodies. The team named the object a “Millimeter Ultra Broad Line Object” (MUBLO).
“Whatsit” was located using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) interferometer at the ALMA Observatory in Chile, known for its high-resolution imaging capabilities. This array uses up to 66 telescopes to detect sources of electromagnetic radiation emanating from space at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.
While investigating the Galactic Center, scientists encountered radiation emanating from a source they named “G0.02467–0.0727”. To classify the object, they examined the properties of a known number of astronomical objects, but found that none of them matched the strange object they found. Due to the mass of the dust, the scientists concluded that the energy in the gas was very high. They called it “strange dust”. Not knowing if the dust was protostellar, they thought it might be supernova dust. But the properties of the object suggested otherwise.
“We have demonstrated the existence of a dusty source with a broad linewidth that is only detected at millimeter wavelengths. Given this limited information, we will now attempt to classify the object. We are considering many possibilities,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Plausible mechanisms include protostellar outflow, explosive outflow, protostellar inflow, ejection from an evolved star, planetary nebula, stellar collision, high-velocity compact cloud (HVCC), intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), galaxy, or supernova. We evaluate each of these hypotheses in the following parts, but we find that none satisfactorily explains the data.’
They also considered the phenomenon of star formation that is prevalent in the galactic center. Star-forming regions are also naturally rich in dust and molecules. They also worked on the hypothesis that the object could be some kind of “evolved star”, such as an asymptotic giant branch or a red supergiant with an extreme wind. But since this object lacked an infrared source, it could not be similar. to these stars.
But there could be another possibility. The researchers further considered the possibility that it could be such a star and was hidden under dense dust like in Betelguese’s Great Dimming. But then they tried that the high column density needed for this mechanism to completely block the star’s infrared light still makes MUBLO unique.
As for whether the object could be a planetary nebula, it was quite unlikely since there was no sign of ionized gas. The chemistry of the object also proved it to be a black hole or a background galaxy. After analyzing all possible classifications for this object, they completed their research and wrote: “Future mid-infrared and millimeter observations will be needed to determine what this object is. The team stated that “MUBLO is currently an observationally unique object.” The object is a metaphor that points to the fact that many mysteries still lurk in the abyss of space, waiting to be revealed.