Scientists Discover Giant Hidden Gas Cloud Eos Just 300 Light Years From Earth
Eos is located at the edge of the Local Bubble, an irregularly shaped region of hot, rarefied gas within the Orion Arm that envelops the solar system. Scientists estimate that the cloud is enormous in size when projected onto the sky — about 40 moons — and has a mass about 3,400 times that of the Sun. Models suggest that Eos will evaporate in about 6 million years.
Supermassive black holes protect galaxies from growing too large
Galaxies could live longer if supermassive black holes act as their “hearts and lungs,” keeping them breathing and preventing them from growing too big. That’s the suggestion of a new study, which suggests that the universe would have aged much faster and today be filled with “zombie” galaxies containing dead or dying stars if it weren’t for the supermassive black holes that are thought to reside at the heart of all large galaxies. The astrophysicists behind the discoveries compare the jets of gas and radiation that supermassive black holes blow from their poles into their airways to breathing and lungs.