A Gigantic Cavity Is Splitting Milky Way Constellations

Live Science

Astronomers have discovered a giant, 500-light-year-wide cavity between two star-forming regions in the constellations Perseus and Taurus. An ancient supernova could be the culprit.

Transcript

00:00Some 10 million years ago, a supernova went off, creating an explosion that pushed gas

00:09and dust around it outwards.

00:11Remnants of this explosion exist to this day, in the shape of molecular clouds, dense regions

00:18of gas where stars form.

00:20New research to measure the shapes and sizes of molecular clouds allowed astronomers to

00:26detect the empty cavity in space created by the supernova.

00:30The discovery shows that the Perseus and Taurus molecular clouds in red and blue, and other

00:36molecular clouds, form from the powerful effects of supernova.

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