Spiral Arms Are Not Just For Galaxies

Spiral arms are a mystery for researchers

Spiral arms are not just for galaxies, according to the latest discovery.

Astronomers from the ALMA observatory, Chile, were able to capture an image of a young star, named Elias 2-27, surrounded by spiral arms. Even though a forming star is a normal event for researchers, this is the first time when spiral arms are seen in the region where planets are forming.

The spiral arms were a featured limited to galaxies, but it seems that things have changed. Not only that astronomers were able to see a wonderful view, but they hope this will help them understand better how planets are formed. The new star is at 450 light-years away from the Earth. The most interesting part is that the spiral arms extend to 6 billion miles, so they overlap inside the disk.

At first, scientist believed there a galaxy there, but new data shows that the planets and the spiral arms could belong to a new solar system. We already knew that planets are made up of dust and gas, but we were not able to understand how they merge into huge bodies. Scientists are still searching how planets like Saturn or Jupiter were formed.

Even though spiral arms could help astronomers understand more things about the how planets are formed, scientists have now other mystery to solve. They are wondering how the spiral structure formed and how it is possible for it to exist in regions where planets are forming. We are expecting more research regarding this matter in the future. Elias 2-27 is at least a million years old. However, it still has plenty of growing to do.

It seems that the Universe has more mysteries for us. While astronomers are trying to discover how planets were solved, NASA has bigger plans regarding Mars. Not only they are taking a lot of photos of the planet due to their Rover, but they also want to send humans to Mars.

The technology has developed so much that we are now able to see things that were impossible to be discovered in the past. We gather more information and find out more about how planets are formed. The latest discovery shows us that spiral arms are not only for galaxies and they could have been connected to the way planets are forming.

Image source: Flickr.com

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Nancy Young

When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.