The dark abyss of space is seemingly endless and can be explored. In this dark ocean of space, countless celestial bodies float. For centuries, scientists and astronomers have classified various objects into lists and categories. This time, however, a team of researchers has discovered an object in the center of the Milky Way that does not fit into these categories. It is a unique object that has never been observed before. The details of its discovery and analysis have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The center of the Milky Way is teeming with billions of stars, tens of millions of masses of gas, a supermassive black hole, star formation, and a vast graveyard of stellar remnants. So this was the most likely place they could discover an astronomical object. But what they finally observed left them speechless.
The mysterious object was first discovered when researchers observed the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), a special area in the galactic center known for its dense gas and star-forming regions. As Daily Express reported, the object was seething with cold dust and fast-moving gas streaming at nearly 180,000 kilometers per hour from a tiny area in the heart of our galaxy. The gas temperature around the object was measured at -436 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly colder than normally observed in this region of the galaxy. Another strange behavior the object exhibited was that it only emitted microwaves.
To understand the object, they compared it to already known astronomical objects such as a supernova or an evolved star. However, this object did not have properties that matched any of the known celestial bodies. The team named the object “Millimeter Ultra Broad Line Object” (MUBLO).
The thing was located using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) interferometer at the ALMA Observatory in Chile, which is known for its high-resolution imaging capabilities. This array uses up to 66 telescopes to detect sources of electromagnetic radiation coming from space at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.
While studying the galactic center, the researchers encountered radiation emanating from a source they called “G0.02467–0.0727.” To classify the object, they scoured the properties of known astronomical objects, but found that none of them matched the strange object they had found. Taking into account the mass of the dust, the researchers concluded that the energy in the gas was very high. They called it “strange dust.” Not knowing if the dust was protostellar, they thought it might be the dust of a supernova. But the properties of the object suggested otherwise.
“We have demonstrated the existence of a dusty source with a broad linewidth that is only detected at millimeter wavelengths. Given this limited information, we now attempt to classify the object. We consider many possibilities,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Plausible mechanisms include protostellar outflow, explosive outflow, protostellar inflow, ejecta from an evolved star, planetary nebula, stellar collision, high-velocity compact cloud (HVCC), intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), galaxy, or supernova. We evaluate each of these hypotheses in the following sections, but find that none satisfactorily explains the data.”
They also considered the phenomenon of star formation that is prevalent in the galactic center. Star-forming regions are naturally rich in dust and molecules. They also worked on the hypothesis that the object could be some kind of “evolved star,” such as an asymptotic giant branch or a red supergiant star with an extreme wind. However, since this object did not have an infrared source, it could not be similar to these stars.
But there could be another possibility. The researchers also considered the possibility that it could be such a star, hidden under a thick cloud of dust like the Great Dimming of Betelgeuse. But then they looked at the possibility that the high column density required for this mechanism to completely block the star’s infrared light would still make MUBLO unique.
Whether the object could be a planetary nebula was quite unlikely, as there were no signs of ionized gas. The object’s chemistry also argued against it being a black hole or a background galaxy. After analyzing all possible classifications for this object, they concluded their research and wrote, “Future observations in the mid-infrared and millimeter wavelengths will be required to determine what this object is.” The team explained that “MUBLO is currently an observationally unique object.” The object is a metaphor that suggests that there are still many mysteries lurking in the depths of space waiting to be revealed.