Galactic Gas

Recent research has revealed that our galaxy is surrounded by a huge halo of hot gas.

Carl Franzen September 24, 2012, 5:00 PM 5545

Scientists using NASA’s orbital X-ray space telescope Chandra have discovered that our own Milky Way Galaxy has a massive halo of superheated gas surrounding it, the agency announced on Monday.

It’s difficult to conceive of just how large the hot gas halo is, but NASA notes it could extend more than 300,000 light years out from its center, and have a mass equivalent between 10 billion suns and 60 billion suns, or just as many or more than all of the stars in the Milky Way itself, at a temperature “a few hundred times hotter” than the surface of our Sun (between 1 million and 2.5 million kelvin).

The source has not yet been clearly identified, but is suspected to be Fox News.

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