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Exclusive: ‘Like ripples on the sea’: Chinese astronomer tells Global Times how the Milky Way got its newly discovered ‘wrinkles’_我的网站

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    Schematic diagram of Milky Way Photo: Courtesy of Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO)
Chinese astronomers have discovered that the Milky Way is not a simple, smoothly warped disk, but contains widespread "wrinkle-like" structures resembling ripples on a water surface, providing new clues to understanding the galaxy's 3D structure and evolutionary history.
The discovery was made by a research team from the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, using data from the "Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting" (MWISP) survey. The findings were published online titled "Widespread corrugations superimposed on the Galactic warp in the outer CO disk" in the journal Nature Astronomy on August 7.
For decades, astronomers have known that the Milky Way's disk is not perfectly flat. Instead, its outer regions are slightly bent upward on one side and downward on the other - a structure known as a galactic warp.
However, the latest study shows that this large-scale bending is not the whole story. Smaller-scale vertical fluctuations are also embedded within the warped disk, creating a more complicated 3D structure.
"In many illustrations and in the public imagination, the Milky Way looks like a flat vinyl record," Sun Yan, associate researcher at PMO and the first author of the paper, told the Global Times on Tuesday. "In reality, the outer part of the Milky Way is more like a record that has been heated and deformed, with one side lifted and the other side lowered. That is the warp. On top of this large-scale deformation, there are additional smaller waves, which we call corrugations," Sun explained.
Using a more everyday analogy, Sun compared the Milky Way's structure to a sea surface. The warp is like a large swell that changes the overall height of the ocean, while corrugations are smaller waves superimposed on that swell.
"The two structures exist together. In our data analysis, we first removed the large-scale warp model, which allowed us to reveal the smaller wave-like patterns hidden underneath," Sun said.
The research focused on the Milky Way's outer gas disk rather than the more familiar stellar disk. According to Sun, cold molecular gas and stars provide two complementary ways to study the galaxy.
"Molecular gas is a sensitive probe for studying the vertical structure and dynamics of the galactic disk because it is concentrated near the disk plane and responds strongly to disturbances," she said.
Molecular gas is also the raw material for star formation, meaning its distribution is closely connected with the formation of young stars. The researchers traced this gas through carbon monoxide (CO) emission, which can penetrate regions obscured by interstellar dust and provide a different perspective from optical observations of stars.
The breakthrough was made possible by the MWISP survey, conducted using China's 13.7-meter millimeter-wave telescope. 
"MWISP can be understood as giving the Milky Way a large-scale medical examination using millimeter-wave observations," Sun said.
Previous CO surveys were limited in sensitivity and coverage, making it difficult to accurately study the distant outer regions of the galaxy. In contrast, the latest study identified more than 30,000 molecular cloud samples, covering about half of the Milky Way's outer disk and extending to a distance of about 26 kiloparsecs from the Galactic center.
With such a large dataset, researchers were able to first establish a model of the overall warp and then separate subtle structures from the background. The newly identified corrugations have radial wavelengths of about 3.9-7.9 kiloparsecs and vertical amplitudes of about 100-200 parsecs.
The study also identified a corrugation structure extending about 40 kiloparsecs in azimuth at a distance of around 12.7 kiloparsecs from the Galactic center. In some spiral arm regions, vertical displacements can reach approximately 200 parsecs.
The researchers believe these large-scale vertical fluctuations are likely related to "bending waves" triggered by external gravitational disturbances, suggesting that the Milky Way might have experienced more complex interactions during its evolutionary history.
Although the newly discovered structures sound dramatic, they do not have any direct impact on Earth or the solar system. "Humans cannot directly sense these corrugations," Sun said. "Their scales reach thousands or even tens of thousands of light-years, and even if these structures are evolving, such changes would not be directly perceptible on human timescales."
The study focuses on the outer disk of the Milky Way and does not include the region around the solar system. "There is currently no evidence that these structures have any observable influence on Earth's environment," Sun said.
Instead, their significance lies in what they reveal about the past. Like geological layers recording Earth's history, these galactic structures preserve traces of the Milky Way's evolutionary journey, the researchers explained.
Researchers said future studies combining more precise motion measurements and numerical simulations could further reveal the origins of these structures and their role in the long-term evolution of the Milky Way.
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B |     노인돌봄센터를 함께 이용하는 동년배와 다투다 주먹을 휘둘러 숨지게 한 80대 남성이 1심에서 실형을 선고받았습니다. 오늘(26일) 법조계에 따르면 수원지법 형사11부(송병훈 부장판사)는 상해치사 혐의로 기소된 A씨에게 징역 1년 6개월을 선고했습니다. 재판부는 A씨가 피해자 유족과 합의할 기회를 부여하기 위해 법정구속은 하지 않았습니다. A씨는 지난해 3월 24일 경기 수원시 권선구의 한 노인돌봄센터에서 같은 80대인 B씨와 다투다 B씨의 눈 부위를 두 차례에 걸쳐 주먹으로 때려 숨지게 한 혐의로 기소됐습니다. B씨는 이튿날인 25일 구토 증세와 함께 의식이 저하돼 병원 응급실로 옮겨져 수술받았으나 3개월가량 뒤 외상성 경막밑출혈로 사망했습니다. 재판부는 "피고인의 폭행 외에는 다른 충격이 가해진 적이 없고, 담당 의사 역시 자발성 뇌출혈로 보기 어렵다는 소견을 냈다"며 "고령인 B씨의 뇌실질 위축 상태를 고려할 때 피고인의 폭행과 사망 사이의 인과관계가 인정된다"고 밝혔습니다. 이어 "사람의 얼굴이나 머리 부분에 강한 충격이 가해질 경우 외상이 없더라도 치명상이 될 수 있음은 누구나 예견할 수 있다"며 "특히 피해자와 같이 고령인 사람의 경우 사망 가능성은 더욱 크다"고 덧붙였습니다. 재판부는 "피해자가 먼저 피고인의 발을 밟으려 하는 등 폭행을 유발한 측면이 있는 점, 유족이 수령을 거부했으나 피고인이 1,500만원을 형사 공탁한 점 등을 유리한 정상으로 참작했다"고 양형 이유를 밝혔습니다.[사진 출처 : 연합뉴스]■ 제보하기▷ 전화 : 02-781-1234, 4444▷ 이메일 : [email protected]▷ 카카오톡 : 'KBS제보' 검색, 채널 추가▷ 유튜브, 다음에서도 KBS뉴스를 구독해주세요!。

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Published on:00:05:03