Mysterious Superstellar Arc?
Posted: 22.04.2005, 01:53
I was just star hopping in Celestia in utter boredom when I came across a most interesting find. About 88,000 light years from Sol, looking perpendicular to the plane of the Milky Way, I saw an unusually natural shape; an Arc/Circle. Probably consisting of hundreds of stars. I have provided two screenshots of this phenomenon: one is the original Celestia view, and in the other I have highlighted major stars that were in the arc to show the shape better. Sol is selected to give reference of the scale of the arc. (I have not edited Celestia or the images in any way as to falsify this shape.)
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This shape might simply be due to the incompleteness of Celestia, which would be understandable; lol. But such an obvious circular shape would likely NOT occur in the random assortment of stars in Celestia. Nor would it occur with the 'seemingly' random assortment of stars in nature. My hypothesis is that this 'arc' is the product of a massive supernova. Billions of years ago, a very massive star hypernovad and as the eons passed new stars began to form in the resulting nebula. As the nebula expanded, its infant stars spread out. This nebula would have long since dissipated and now we are left with this arc of stars billions of years later. Usually, super novas explode in all directions, but on occasion, a nova occurs along the equator of a star or it's magnetic pole(s) etc. Thus this arc could be relatively flat instead of sphereical, from a normal nova. But this is speculation on something that could yet still prove to be incorrect. All of you more than likely understand what I'm saying. (Such a verbose explanation is not required on a forum full of astronomical intellectuals, lol.)
If my hypothesis is correct, there are some ways of proving it.
1. The stars must all be relatively the same age. But do not confuse a star's spectral class with its age. Massive stars go through the stellar cycle much more rapidly than a less massive star.
2. All the stars' vectors (proper motion) equal approximately ZERO. It is a law of physics that in an explosion or anything of the sort; a firework or a plash in a pond, the vectors of each piece of debris, when calculated together = ZERO.
(If anyone can think of further tests, fell free to post them)
Secondly this could be some galactic phenomenon. Possibly some event generated by the Milky Way as a whole. Also; could this be the result of a Gamma Ray Burst long ago, etc.
This is just a hypothesis and this 'arc' could simply be due to the inescapable fallibility of Celestia. I will look further into this, and see if my other stellar cartography programs have a simular event. And if nothing else, it would still make a fun, speculative, scientific paper. An event like this is probably VERY probable; whether this arc is a result of it or not.
Normal
[/url]
[/url]
Highlighted
[/url]
[/url]
This shape might simply be due to the incompleteness of Celestia, which would be understandable; lol. But such an obvious circular shape would likely NOT occur in the random assortment of stars in Celestia. Nor would it occur with the 'seemingly' random assortment of stars in nature. My hypothesis is that this 'arc' is the product of a massive supernova. Billions of years ago, a very massive star hypernovad and as the eons passed new stars began to form in the resulting nebula. As the nebula expanded, its infant stars spread out. This nebula would have long since dissipated and now we are left with this arc of stars billions of years later. Usually, super novas explode in all directions, but on occasion, a nova occurs along the equator of a star or it's magnetic pole(s) etc. Thus this arc could be relatively flat instead of sphereical, from a normal nova. But this is speculation on something that could yet still prove to be incorrect. All of you more than likely understand what I'm saying. (Such a verbose explanation is not required on a forum full of astronomical intellectuals, lol.)
If my hypothesis is correct, there are some ways of proving it.
1. The stars must all be relatively the same age. But do not confuse a star's spectral class with its age. Massive stars go through the stellar cycle much more rapidly than a less massive star.
2. All the stars' vectors (proper motion) equal approximately ZERO. It is a law of physics that in an explosion or anything of the sort; a firework or a plash in a pond, the vectors of each piece of debris, when calculated together = ZERO.
(If anyone can think of further tests, fell free to post them)
Secondly this could be some galactic phenomenon. Possibly some event generated by the Milky Way as a whole. Also; could this be the result of a Gamma Ray Burst long ago, etc.
This is just a hypothesis and this 'arc' could simply be due to the inescapable fallibility of Celestia. I will look further into this, and see if my other stellar cartography programs have a simular event. And if nothing else, it would still make a fun, speculative, scientific paper. An event like this is probably VERY probable; whether this arc is a result of it or not.
