Astronomers are continuously on the hunt for the latest developments taking place across the universe. Whether it be the possible formation of new stars or planets, trying to uncover whether or not life exists away from planet Earth or helping to prepare the latest weather reports, astronomers take on a vital role each and every day.
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Recently uncovering a brilliant finding, the International Business Times reports that astronomers discovered a massive star -- capable of growing to be 100 times bigger than the sun -- 11,000 light years away from Earth.
According to IBT, Dr. Nicolas Peretto of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom led the discovery alongside a team of astronomers. Using the ALMA system -- a program capable of probing stars and galaxies while directly imaging the formation of planets -- the team was able to locate what they're referring to as a "Monster" star growing in the Spitzer Dark Cloud. The discovery is largest core ever found in the Milky Way galaxy.
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"The remarkable observations from ALMA allowed us to get the first really in-depth look at what was going on within this cloud," Dr. Peretto told Headlines & Global News. "We wanted to see how monster stars form and grow, and we certainly achieved our aim. One of the sources we have found is an absolute giant, the largest protostellar core ever spotted in the Milky Way!"
Recording their findings in the journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Dr. Peretto and his research team were optimistic about uncovering certain formations in this region. Despite their shared joy over discovering this monumental finding, however, no one on the team ever imagined the discovery would be this magnificent.
"Even though we already believed that the region was a good candidate for being a massive star-forming cloud, we were not expecting to find such a massive embryonic star at its center," Dr. Peretto continued. This cloud is expected to form at least one star 100 times more massive than the sun and up to a million times brighter. Only about one in 10,000 of all stars in the Milky Way reach that kind of mass."
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A discovery like this will certainly help astronomers build on the potential of finding other new systems and stars using ALMA while also helping to discover some potential problems taking place far beyond this planet.
"We managed to get these very detailed observations using only a fraction of ALMA's ultimate potential," Dr. Peretto said. "ALMA will definitely revolutionize our knowledge of star formation, solving some current problems, and certainly raising new ones."
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