¿Una Vía Láctea para cenar?
Esta imagen de la semana muestra a Yepun, la cuarta Unidad de Telescopio del Very Large Telescope (VLT) de ESO, en Chile, aparentemente mordisqueando el colorido plano galáctico de la Vía Láctea. Pero, ¿de qué está hecha realmente nuestra Vía Láctea? La receta consiste principalmente en estrellas, planetas, y mucho gas y polvo. Los mezclamos, los unimos con gravedad, agregamos una porción de materia oscura, et voilà: ¡tenemos una galaxia!
Al igual que las galletas, las galaxias vienen en diferentes formas y tamaños. Nuestra galaxia natal es de tamaño mediano y tiene la forma de un disco con brazos espirales y un halo exterior que la rodea. Pero dado que nuestro Sistema Solar está incrustado en uno de los brazos espirales de la Vía Láctea, a unos 25.000 años luz del centro, solo vemos una parte cuando miramos hacia arriba. El centro galáctico está envuelto en gruesas capas de polvo cósmico. Detrás de ese polvo, se esconde el agujero negro supermasivo Sagitario A*, del que la comunidad científica logró obtener imágenes por primera vez en 2022.
La comunidad astronómica estima que nuestra galaxia contiene entre 100.000 y 400.000 millones de estrellas, y probablemente otros tantos planetas. En las regiones interiores encontramos principalmente estrellas más viejas, mientras que los brazos espirales de la Vía Láctea están repletos de estrellas jóvenes, nacidas de las nubes gigantes de gas molecular y polvo que contienen los brazos. Alejándonos aún más, llegamos al halo de la Vía Láctea. Aquí encontramos cúmulos globulares, compuestos por estrellas viejas, así como los restos de pequeñas galaxias satélite que fueron tragadas por nuestra Vía Láctea.
Finalmente, un ingrediente vital es algo que no podemos ver. Las galaxias giran tan rápido que las estrellas, el gas y el polvo por sí solos no pueden mantenerlas unidas. Así que necesitamos un "ingrediente secreto" para explicar por qué no se desmoronan: la materia oscura. Los científicos asumen que la Vía Láctea está anidada en un halo gigante de materia oscura, probablemente 10 veces la masa de todas sus estrellas, o incluso más. Por invisible que sea, los telescopios como el VLT nos ayudan a comprender la materia oscura al investigar cómo afecta a la materia cósmica que vemos.
Crédito:ESO/J. C. Muñoz-Mateos
Sobre la imagen
| Identificador: | potw2449a |
| Idioma: | es-cl |
| Tipo: | Fotográfico |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2 de Diciembre de 2024 a las 06:00 |
| Tamaño: | 5472 x 3648 px |
Sobre el objeto
| Nombre: | Milky Way, Very Large Telescope |
| Tipo: | Milky Way Unspecified : Technology : Observatory |
Formatos de imagen
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