There's A 'Break' In One Of Milky Way's Spiral Arms. Here's Why It's A Big Deal

The cosmos is a catalyst for chaos, throwing out a new detail at scientists every time they begin to get comfortable.?

Now, scientists have discovered a new feature of our galaxy the Milky Way, which could help them understand the different structures that exist within the galaxy.?

A "break" in the arm

A cluster of baby stars and gases that birth stars are currently sticking out of one of the spiral arms of Milky Way, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced.?

Why is this big news? This marks the first time that a structure within one of the Milky Way's arms has been found to be standing out.?

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The broken arm spans at least 3,000 light-years.Studying the Milky Way is especially tricky, because Earth is situated inside the galaxy.?

Also read:?Scientists Say There’s Only One Earth-Like Planet In Our Galaxy

To understand the galaxy and its arms, the study's authors focused on the area near one of the arms, called the Sagittarius Arm.?

They used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope for assistance before it retired in January 2020.?

The telescope was used to detect infrared light that cannot be seen by the human eye.Most young stars and nebulae align nicely with the shape of whichever arms they inhabit within a galaxy.?

How was the broken arm discovered?

In hopes of getting a 3D view of the arm in question, scientists used data from European Space Agency (ESA)'s Gaia mission to pinpoint the exact distance to and from the stars.?

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Most long structures that form the Sagittarius Arm are made of young stars moving at the same velocity and in the same direction through space, data revealed.?

It was during these observations that a "break" was discovered in the Sagittarius Arm.?

Also read:?NASA Shares Pic Of Milky Way Galaxy’s Crowded Downtown 26,000 Light Years Away

The lead author of the paper, Michael Kuhn told NASA that most arms are defined by how closely they encircle a galaxy which is measured by what is called a "pitch angle".?

While most of the arm has a pitch angle of 12 degrees, the "break" stood out with an angle of about 60 degrees!?

Such structures are found in galaxies around the universe and are called spurs or feathers.