Stretching thousands of light-years across the Milky Way, a newly discovered filament of hydrogen named Maggie is one of the biggest structures ever discovered in our galaxy.
In this image of the Milky Way, in the box you can see the location of the"Maggie" filament. The different colors show different velocities of hydrogen gas.In this image you can see the distribution of atomic hydrogen in the Milky Way. The"Maggie" filament is shown by the red dotted line.
In this new study, the team of astronomers used data from the HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the Milky Way, also known as the THOR survey, to investigate Maggie and shed light on large clouds of hydrogen like it. The team discovered Maggie and, with their work, were able to see how far it stretches, the velocity of the hydrogen gas making it up and more. The astronomers were even able to determine Maggie's distance from Earth, which they estimate is about 55,000 light-years.
Typically it is very challenging for astronomers to detect large hydrogen groupings like this, because they don't stand out against the ISM. However, Maggie's unique location helped to make it visible. "The location of this filament has contributed to this success … we don’t yet know exactly how it got there. But the filament extends about 1,600 light-years below the Milky Way plane," study author Jonas Syed, a PhD student at MPIA, said in the same statement, which added that this location makes it possible for researchers to see radiation emanating from the hydrogen.