Using decades of X-ray observations, astronomers have created the first 3D maps of two giant molecular clouds, 'Sticks' and 'Stones', located in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). This extreme environment, influenced by the supermassive black hole Sgr A*, allows for unique insights into star formation and the interaction of gas clouds with intense X-ray radiation.
Astronomers have created 3D maps of two giant molecular clouds in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone . What happens to them in such an extreme environment? Image Credit: Alboslani et al. 2025.
When gas from elsewhere in the galaxy reaches Sgr A*, it forms an accretion ring around the SMBH. As the gas heats up, it releases X-rays. These X-ray emission are only intermittent, and in the past, some of these episodes have been very intense. The X-ray travel outward in all directions, and while we didn’t have the capability to observe them, they interacted with GMCs near the CMZ. The clouds first absorbed them the re-emitted them in a phenomenon called fluorescence.
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has been observing these X-rays for two decades, and as it observes them it sees different “slices” of the clouds, just like medical tomography. The slices are then built up into a 3D image. These are the first 3D maps of star-forming clouds in such an extreme environment.
“We can estimate the sizes of the molecular structures that we do not see in the X-ray,“ says Brunker, “and from there we can place constraints on the duration of the X-ray flare by modeling what we would be able to observe for a range of flare lengths. The model that reproduced observations with similar sized ‘missing structures’ indicated that the X-ray flare couldn’t have been much longer than 4-5 months.
Detecting a third dimension of the clouds in this extreme environment could open new avenues of discovery.
ASTROPHYSICS MILKY WAY BLACK HOLES STAR FORMATION X-RAY OBSERVATION
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