Tour Guide to the Five Wonders of the Galaxy

Today's PerspectiveReporter Liu Xia from our newspaperOver the past few decades, human gaze has swept over many wonderful scenes within the solar system: the crisscrossing waterways on Mars, the geysers continuously ejecting into space on Enceladus, the cold icebergs on Pluto, and so on.What surprises would you capture if you extended your field of view further away? In a recent report, the website of New Scientist magazine in the UK described an exhilarating journey of the most magnificent landscapes in the Milky Way: from a "internet celebrity" black hole to a dark matter river; From a livable exoplanet for humans to a grand cosmic fireworks displayS1 Stream: A Star "River" Carrying Dark MatterThe journey officially begins

Today's Perspective

Reporter Liu Xia from our newspaper

Over the past few decades, human gaze has swept over many wonderful scenes within the solar system: the crisscrossing waterways on Mars, the geysers continuously ejecting into space on Enceladus, the cold icebergs on Pluto, and so on.

What surprises would you capture if you extended your field of view further away? In a recent report, the website of New Scientist magazine in the UK described an exhilarating journey of the most magnificent landscapes in the Milky Way: from a "internet celebrity" black hole to a dark matter river; From a livable exoplanet for humans to a grand cosmic fireworks display

S1 Stream: A Star "River" Carrying Dark Matter

The journey officially begins. First, it will jump into a star "river" that runs through the entire Milky Way galaxy - S1 stream. The sun is in it, like a grain of dust in the Sahara Desert.

To find the source of the S1 stream, it is necessary to set the clock back 9 billion years ago, when the Milky Way was in a turbulent young age, and its powerful gravity dragged and tore apart nearby dwarf galaxies, leaving only a pile of debris, forming this rapidly moving "river" composed of stars and others.

In 2017, astronomers used the European Space Agency's Gaia probe to confirm that S1 Stream is a stripped off remnant of an ancient dwarf galaxy.

Zhang Chengmin, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said to the reporter of Science and Technology Daily: "The measurement of star motion shows that dwarf galaxies are rich in dark matter. Therefore, S1 flow is mainly a dark matter flow. Traveling along S1 flow will give us a chance to solve one of the biggest mysteries in physics - the mystery of dark matter."

Proxima Centauri b: A livable exoplanet

According to Zhang Chengmin, scientists have so far discovered more than 5000 planets orbiting stars in the Milky Way, among which the most interesting is the nearby star B in the constellation Centauri, as it is the closest exoplanet to Earth, with a distance of approximately 4.22 light-years. Scientists believe that neighboring star B may be suitable for the reproduction and reproduction of life.

In addition, the neighboring star B orbits its star once every 11 days and is in a tidal locked state. Therefore, one side of the neighboring star b is forever in daylight, while the other side is trapped in eternal darkness. Here we will see the true extraterrestrial wonder: the sunset forever hanging in the sky.

Betelgeuse: Appreciating the "curtain call performance" of a star

The next destination for travel is a huge star, more than 100000 times brighter than the sun, located in the constellation Orion and emitting a deep red glow during the cold winter. This star named "Betelgeuse" has a variable temperament and may explode into a supernova at any time.

Zhang Chengmin explained, "Part of the reason why it is so huge is because it was born huge, but the main reason is that it has expanded into a super red giant. It has depleted the hydrogen element that maintains nuclear combustion and is burning helium element, causing the star to continuously expand outward

The scene of the impending apocalypse is like this: usually helium burns only enough for a star to support millions of years, and then the star will frantically burn out the remaining heavier elements. Carbon can burn for hundreds of years, and then oxygen can burn for six months. On the last day of life, this star will burn silicon into iron, "Zhang Chengmin described.

Magnetar SGR1935+2154: Staring at high-energy signals from deep space

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been a constant concern for astronomers. In 2020, they discovered FRB for the first time in the Milky Way, which comes from the magnetic star SGR1935+2154, which is also the next stop of their journey.

Be vigilant about SGR1935+2154, even at a distance of 1000 kilometers, strong magnetism can tear atoms apart into mist. But beyond a safe distance, strange flashes of light can be seen on its surface, as a magnetic star can distort the spacetime around it, causing the light propagating nearby to refract.

Careful observation of SGR1935+2154 can help us understand how FRB is generated. One view suggests that the stellar winds of charged particles flow in from the north and south poles of the magneto, colliding with the magnetic field and triggering radiation. Another view suggests that FRB is caused by a huge vibration in the magneto's crust known as a 'stellar earthquake', "said Zhang Chengmin.

Sagittarius A *: A "internet celebrity" black hole shouldering heavy responsibilities

Zhang Chengmin joked, "Any trip to the Milky Way without visiting the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A * at the center of the galaxy is incomplete, as we will not only see a fascinating light show, but may even discover key clues about the true nature of spacetime

Last year, the Event Horizon Telescope team took the first photo of Sagittarius A *, and this blurry orange "donut" image also dominated headlines in newspapers around the world.

The edge of a black hole is called the "event horizon", and anything that passes through the event horizon will be swallowed by the black hole. However, beyond the event horizon, the extreme distortion of spacetime means that light can be pulled into an "endless circle". Light from all stars inside and outside the Milky Way is trapped within this' photon sphere '. Here, there is a chance to see a truly infinite universe movie released.

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