Researching the clouds in Magallanes

1994/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

The French Academy of Sciences has awarded astronomers Jacques Boulesteix, Yvon Georgelin and Yves Monet for the creation of a system called “Cigale”. It is like a scanner to measure the gas velocity of galaxies (usually ionized hydrogen). In the Small Cloud of Magellan, near our galaxy, radial velocities have been measured, with an accuracy of 5 km/s.

This precision allows to know dynamics that cannot be analyzed with conventional resources. Three astronomers, for example, have discovered that the Small Magellanic Cloud has a rotation inside it. On the other hand, the interaction map between the galaxies NGC 2535 and NGC 2536 has been made in three dimensions.

These investigations are related to some of the main problems of astrophysics. The hidden mass of the universe or the exchange of matter in dynamic systems are two of these main points.

Now they want to map the Milky Way nebula in three dimensions, and they are already investigating 150 zones of a square degree. This aims to resolve an old debate. Because it would suppose that our galaxy has two or four spiral arms.